The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

February 15, 1985

The Hockey News February 15, 1985

<div class="byline">BY ERIC DUHATSCHEK</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-02749/4962338-1-eng-US/f0017-022.jpg" title="f0017-02" width="580" height="153"></div><h2>CALGARY FLAMES</h2>CALGARY&mdash;One thing that Jim Peplinski doesn&rsquo;t like is listening to theories.Especially hockey theories. Especially the one that says he plays better when he is the Calgary Flames&rsquo; designated captain. Or that his play falls off when someone else wears the C on his sweater.Statistics say the latter theory may have some validity.They show that with Doug Risebrough sidelined all season and Lanny McDonald absent for half the season because of a stomach injury and a suspension, Peplinski was the interim captain for 25 of the team&rsquo;s first 47 games.In the 25 games that Peplinski was captain, he scored eight goals and accumulated 21 points. In the other 24 games, Peplinski managed just three goals and 10 assists.Moreover, the team is 16-7-2 with Peplinski as captain and 9-10-5 when he&rsquo;s not.So coach Bob Johnson made it official. The Flames now have tri-captains&mdash;Risebrough, McDonald and Peplinski. They will alternate the responsibility every five games.Peplinski, as usual, could not be convinced by the numbers.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a statistical coincidence.&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If you look at it, when I&rsquo;ve been captain, we&rsquo;ve had guys hurt, so I played more. You can draw your own conclusions, but I don&rsquo;t think I played any different whether I wear the C or not.&ldquo;Wearing the C does not make you a leader. You can&rsquo;t just put the C on somebody and say, &lsquo;You&rsquo;re a leader.&rsquo; We have more leaders on this club than just the three so-called captains. From the younger players like Richard Kromm and Colin Patterson to McDonald and Risebrough, we&rsquo;ve got good character. On this team, being the captain is a fairly easy job because it isn&rsquo;t just one guy who leads.&rdquo;Johnson said he made Peplinski a permanent captain as a reward for the 24-year-old center&rsquo;s play, especially away from the Saddledome.&ldquo;We are one of the few teams that&rsquo;s. 500 or better on the road and he&rsquo;s got to get some of the credit,&rdquo; said Johnson. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got leadership ability and we&rsquo;ve got to use it.&rdquo;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing wrong with having three captains,&rdquo; Johnson added. &ldquo;They have it in football and they have it in baseball.&rdquo;If the news of his additional reponsibi-lities pleased Peplinski, the fact that he was able to return to the lineup again had a similar effect on the unlucky McDonald.So far this season, every time McDonald stepped into the starting blocks, the race ended on a false start.The injuries and the suspension accounted for that.&ldquo;It has just been one of those years,&rdquo; said McDonald. &ldquo;Every time I start to go, I get put on hold. In training camp, you always hope to stay healthy. That didn&rsquo;t happen. Then I never expected to get suspended. But it&rsquo;s all part of the game. You just have to grin and bear it and make the last half more fruitful than the first half.&rdquo;On the day the Flames&rsquo; announced Pe-plinski&rsquo;s new role, the team also passed on the good news to rookie defenseman Neil Sheehy.Johnson told Sheehy that he could start looking for an apartment in town. Sheehy will be with the team indefinitely.&ldquo;Obviously I&rsquo;m thrilled to be staying,&rdquo; said Sheehy, &ldquo;but it doesn&rsquo;t change anything. I&rsquo;ve got to keep doing what I&rsquo;ve been doing. Just because you get a place to stay doesn&rsquo;t mean they can&rsquo;t send me back down. But it does add a little confidence&mdash;that that they&rsquo;re going with me, that they think I can do the job.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0017-02

IN THIS ISSUE

Flames Confirm Peplinski Has Leadership Abilities

IF ONLY MORE newspapers picked up on the Toronto Globe and Mail&rsquo;s initiative to publish the NHL standings geographically (Pacific, Central, East, Atlantic), maybe the NHL after 11 years of meaningless, amateur, historical trivia will end its identity crisis and regain a professional status.Renaming divisions and conferences geographically would give the fans something easier to identify with and make division titles and All-Star games more meaningful.But, I would go even further. To strengthen league play and rivalries and to make the game even more meaningful, further realignment is needed. The NHL has to forget about a national U.S. network arrangement and establish itself only in hockey marketable cities. Forget about Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and cities anywhere in the American south or west-coast cities&mdash;where hockey will never make it. Look to cities such as Hamilton, Ottawa, and Saskatoon in Canada and Indianapolis and Cincinatti in the U.S.R. Wowk Toronto, Ont.<h2>REGULAR-SEASON CURE</h2>How can the NHL continue to play a gruelling 80-game schedule that has no meaning? They are robbing the fans! I consider myself a hockey nut, but there is something wrong with the system when I don&rsquo;t care how my team finishes in the standings (as long as they finish in the playoffs) because it doesn&rsquo;t mean anything.It is beyond me how the NHL governors, owners and players can let this continue. I realize that 16 teams must make the playoffs for financial reasons and I think the divisional rivalries are great for hockey, but let&rsquo;s put some meaning into the regular schedule.My suggestion is for the first-and second-place teams in each division to receive four out of the five games in the preliminary round at home. Take for example, the Patrick Division this year. Let&rsquo;s say Philadelphia wins first place and Pittsburgh ends up in fourth place. The first two games could be played in Philadelphia, the third game in Pittsburgh and if necessary the last two games in Philadelphia. The second extra home game&rsquo;s gate receipts from Philadelphia could even go to the Penguins to help them financially if this game was played. For the next round the highest team would get the extra home game in the best-of-seven series. At least this way teams would have something to shoot for.If the first place team cannot defeat the fourth place team with four out of five games at home then they don&rsquo;t deserve to advance any further.Wayne Pry de Hamilton. Ont.<h2>AN ALL-STAR IDEA</h2>I have a suggestion on how to make the present All-Star game format more interesting.The winning Conference from the All-Star game and its team representative in the Stanley Cup finals would automatically get home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup finals, that way the fans and the media would stop bickering about the present format and the players would have an incentive.Nick Granata Scarborough, Ont.<h2>IN DEFENSE OF CHERRY</h2>I am writing in reference to a recent letter in the Fan Forum. It was about Don Cherry&rsquo;s article on European players. As a loyal fan of Grapes, I felt this need to reply. I think Don Cherry is a great spokesman for hockey. North America has many great hockey players who are overshadowed by European players, a fact that Don Cherry was just expressing. I am not putting down European players either. It&rsquo;s just very frustrating when there is a North American hockey player sitting on the bench, who is just as good, maybe even better but the European is on the ice because he is &ldquo;flashier.&rdquo;Grapes is only telling it like it is, whether one likes it or not! One may not always agree with Grapes, but one must admit that he does have a way with words that draws lots of attention.Jenny Meek New Haven, NY<h2>POSITIVE PERREAULT FEEDBACK</h2>This letter is for Mr. Stan Fischler regarding his column (Jan. 18).Mr. Fischler, I agree that Gil Perreault hasn&rsquo;t said much in his career, but that is his job. A man does not stick around the NHL for over 14 years by talking to the press. Did you ever think, Stan, that maybe his reason for not saying much is because the press has a tendency to twist a word or two around and make something sound ridiculous. It is truly a shame (also unbelievable) that you can&rsquo;t write something good about the man who is 13th on the all-time scoring list.Bill Hoemer Farmington. MI &#9632;

FAN FORUM

Czechoslovakian hockey players may soon be allowed to play in the National Hockey League without having to defect from their native country, says the coach of the Czechoslovakian national hockey team.Ludak Bukac told Toronto Globe and Mail reporter Matthew Fisher that the Czechoslovakian federation is starting to think about co-operating more closely with the NHL.&ldquo;This would involve letting younger players play in North America, but any such agreement would depend on keeping the quality of the Czech team high,&rdquo; Bukac said. &ldquo;By this I mean a clause in the contract would guarantee that players would be able to play for us at the world championships. The problem with this proposal right now is the timing. As it is now, with the championships on at the same time as the NHL playoffs, this would not be practical.&rdquo;Gilbert Perreault, the Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; first No. 1 draft pick, has moved into 10th place on the all-time National Hockey League scoring list.Perreault, the Sabres&rsquo; 34-year-old captain, recorded three points in his team&rsquo;s 6-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Feb. 3 to move ahead of former Montreal Canadien great Jean Beliveau on the NHL&rsquo;s all-time scoring list.The Boston Bruins and Winnipeg Jets completed a one-for-one deal when veteran Morris Lukowich was sent packing to Beantown for Jim Nill on Feb. 2.Lukowich, 28, an original player from the team&rsquo;s World Hockey Association days, was used sparingly this season and recently had to pay a fine for leaving the team after not being dressed in a game against Pittsburgh.Nill, 26, had been acquired from Vancouver midway through last season in exchange for Peter McNab and has had previous stops in St. Louis and Vancouver.Foster Hewitt, the 82-year-old former hockey announcer who coined the phrase &ldquo;he shoots, he scores,&rdquo; is suffering from Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, but is in stable condition in a home for the elderly in Toronto, according to his son, Bill Hewitt.&ldquo;Dad&rsquo;s health is not very good,&rdquo; Bill Hewitt told the Canadian Press. &ldquo;However, his condition is stable.&rdquo;Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease affects the outer layer of the brain and loss of memory is one of the results.The younger Hewitt, 56, who quit broadcasting four years ago because of poor health, admits it&rsquo;s &ldquo;discouraging&rdquo; to see his father in his present condition.&ldquo;When we talk, sometimes I think he&rsquo;s right there, then he might just tip away a bit. He gives you a little show of doubt&mdash;that you&rsquo;re not sure (he&rsquo;s following the conversation).&ldquo;But you have to look on the brighter side. We&rsquo;ve had some 70-odd years together. We can&rsquo;t all go on forever.&rdquo; &#9632;

Czech Federation May Give Players Break

<h2>FEBRUARY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-07178/4963799-1-eng-US/f0035-072.jpg" title="f0035-07" width="540" height="380"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-08158/4963792-1-eng-US/f0035-082.jpg" title="f0035-08" width="558" height="420"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-09150/4963785-1-eng-US/f0035-092.jpg" title="f0035-09" width="548" height="418"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-10130/4963778-1-eng-US/f0035-102.jpg" title="f0035-10" width="540" height="428"></div> &#9632;

f0035-07

NHL GAMES TO COME

In the Feb. 22 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, we&rsquo;ll take a look at Buffalo and find out what the Sabres are doing&mdash;other than shovelling snow in another one of those wild and crazy western New York winters.Specifically, we&rsquo;ll take a look at rookie Sabre John Tucker, who is trying to avoid the injury bug and prove that he&rsquo;s one of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s most gifted goal scorers.The Sabres are a team that many experts figure to be a definite Stanley Cup contender and a healthy Tucker is one reason why.On top of that, we&rsquo;ll have the second of our four quarterly reports on NHL attendance.Don&rsquo;t miss it. &#9632;

NEXT WEEK IN THN

<div class="byline">BY BOB FACHET</div>LANDOVER&mdash;In his first National Hockey League game, Bob Carpenter scored a goal, assisted by linemate Mike Gartner. Since that game in Buffalo in October, 1981, Carpenter has played 290 more games, many alongside Gartner. At last, all concerned are sure that is where he belongs.Coach Bryan Murray signalled the end to his three-year indecision regarding the Carpenter-Gartner matchup on Jan. 27, after the pair dazzled the New York Islanders in a 5-2 victory that gave the Caps a weekend sweep of their playoff nemesis.New York, beaten 5-1 at home the day before, had rallied from two goals down to tie the Capitals in the third period and quiet a Capital Center sellout of 18,130. Then Carpenter and Gartner evoked bedlam.Thirty seconds after Patrick Flatley&rsquo;s tying goal, Gartner put Washington ahead to stay. Carpenter picked off a pass by Gord Dineen to start a two-on-one with Gartner. Carpenter faked the lone remaining defender, Paul Boutilier, to the ice and fed Gartner, who drilled the puck between the legs of goalie Kelly Hrudey.Two minutes later, Gartner faked a shot that froze Dineen and passed to Carpenter on the right wing. Gartner broke past the bewildered Dineen, took the return pass and netted his 31st goal. For a final touch, Carpenter added a power-play goal after John Tonelli received-a major penalty for high-sticking Larry Murphy in the mouth.Of his tinkering with the Carpenter-Gartner line, Murray said, &ldquo;It took a couple of years of playing them together, breaking them up and trying to play them together. They weren&rsquo;t that good together the first 10 or 12 games this season, but they&rsquo;ve really come on.&ldquo;Mike has great speed and he has to get the puck. Bobby didn&rsquo;t&rsquo; do that before. B ut Bobby has matured as a player. Not only is he a great goal scorer, but he&rsquo;s much more creative. Mike is improving, he&rsquo;s finishing better and he&rsquo;s getting the puck in better situations. A lot of that is because of Bobby.&rdquo;Carpenter, who scored his 39th goal two nights later at Detroit, said, &ldquo;A couple of years ago, there were a few times when we didn&rsquo;t score and we had a lot scored against us. A coach sees that and he feels he has to change something.&ldquo;Also, we often had checking lines thrown against us. Now, teams are putting their best line against us, talent on talent, and me and Mike skate better than a lot of other players. Even at home, Bryan is playing us against the best. And when we run into a checking line, now we have enough confidence that we&rsquo;re able to overcome it.&rdquo;Gartner, who seems to have gained a step in his sixth NHL season, said, &ldquo;Ever since Bobby came here, we realize they&rsquo;ve wanted us to play together. It hasn&rsquo;t worked out all that well before. Both of us were the type of player that needed the puck all the time. I was a winger who needed his centerman to give him the puck. He was a center who needed his wingers to feed him the puck.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-011238/4961289-1-eng-US/f0003-012.jpg" title="f0003-01" width="978" height="1358"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-021016/4961282-1-eng-US/f0003-022.jpg" title="f0003-02" width="980" height="1356"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Carpenter, left, has matured since he broke into the league in 1981. He&rsquo;s becoming more creative with the puck, which is helping linemate Mike Gartner (right), who seems to have gotten faster in his sixth season.</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-03669/4961275-1-eng-US/f0003-032.jpg" title="f0003-03" width="964" height="168"></div><h2>WASHINGTON CAPITALS</h2>&ldquo;We did not have enough offensive creativity to give each other the puck an equal amount. Maybe now we have enough maturity and confidence to get over that hurdle. We don&rsquo;t care who scores. If a guy is in the open, he&rsquo;ll get the puck.&rdquo;Gartner also credited the addition of Gaeten Duchesne as the pair&rsquo;s left winger for their recent success.&ldquo;Gaetan has helped us both out; he&rsquo;s an ideal winger to play with us,&rdquo; Gartner said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s strong along the boards in our end zone and he gets the puck up to Bobby a lot. He&rsquo;s also the third man back and we can take chances and know he&rsquo;ll take care of the other end.&rdquo;CAPPING IT OFF&mdash;Bobby Carpenter, Rod Langway and Scott Stevens were selected to the Prince of Wales Conference team for the NHL All-Star game in Calgary on Feb. 12. Mike Gartner was a solid third in the voting at right wing and there was hope he would be added by Islander coach Al Arbour&hellip;Duane Sutter of the Islanders rapped Bryan Murray in the leg with his stick as the teams left the ice after the second period on Jan. 27. The two have been longtime antagonists and Murray&rsquo;s mood was not improved when he demanded a penalty for Sutter and received a bench minor instead. Darren Veitch was forced out for at least a week when he stepped on a puck and suffered separated rib cartilege. Goalie Bob Mason&rsquo;s eight-game winning streak ended with a 4-3 loss at Detroit, which was Washington&rsquo;s first defeat in 12 meetings with Norris Division teams. &#9632;

f0003-01

Capitals Can’t Separate Carpenter, Gartner

<div class="byline">BY RICH FRIEDMAN</div>NEW YORK&mdash;&rdquo;The Islanders go away really early in the season and get to know each other,&rdquo; New York Ranger right winger Anders Hedberg said after his return from an eye injury he suffered last December. &ldquo;We need a long road trip just to be around each other. It will be really helpful.&rdquo;The excursion to which Hedberg referred&mdash;the team&rsquo;s first extended road trip of the season&mdash;was, the team hoped, to be just what the doctor ordered, and it was to be much more than a &ldquo;getting-to-know-you&rdquo; occasion. It would serve as the first real test of the Craig Patrick regime as coach, following the Jan. 21 firing of Herb Brooks.They embarked with a 2-1 record under Patrick&mdash;wins at home against Detroit and Minnesota and a loss in Montreal&mdash;but the seven games away from the Garden would constitute shorter road trips than usual at this time of year, when the Ice Capades move into the Madison Square Garden.Only the first four games would really comprise a road-trip&mdash;games in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Then the Rangers were to return to the metropolitan area for a quick hop to the Island, and then a weekend in Hartford and Philadelphia just before the All-Star break.In the first three games under Patrick, the Rangers played with a fierce-ness that had been absent for almost all season. But certain things had not changed: against the North Stars they gave up 52 shots and it was a strong performance in goal by Glen Hanlon that saved them.&ldquo;I was disappointed in the shots on goal tonight,&rdquo; Patrick admitted. &ldquo;Glen played one heck of a game. He was fantastic. That was the best I&rsquo;ve seen him.&rdquo;While the Rangers did give up a lot of shots&mdash;a consistent problem the past few weeks&mdash;Hanlon maintained that the fact they were mostly first shots, with very few rebounds, was a good sign.&ldquo;It might sound ludicrous, but every time they took a shot we picked up the man,&rdquo; said the goalie, who tried to downplay his own role. &ldquo;Sometimes it&rsquo;s amazing how it works. You just stand there and they hit you. Other times you can&rsquo;t get a save to save your life. A night like this makes everything worthwhile.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-04387/4961327-1-eng-US/f0003-042.jpg" title="f0003-04" width="560" height="163"></div><h2>NEW YORK RANGERS</h2>Hanlon also put his finger on one motivating force the team has behind it now: &ldquo;We have to feel responsible for one man losing his job; if anything we should be playing with guilt.&rdquo;That, of course, could easily be a two-edged sword, because with guilt can come self-punishment, though it is hard to imagine the players punishing themselves later for not putting out for Brooks, the man who many of them came to see as a perennially disapproving father figure.One player who received an obvious, immediate wake-up call by the change in coaches was Nick Fotiu, one of the most adamant of the anti-Brooks lobbyists and a native New Yorker with what amounts to a private line to the Ranger high command, in particular team president Jack Krumpe.Fotiu&rsquo;s lack of ice time became a vicious cycle with Brooks: the less Fotiu played the less enthusiasm and the worse the two got along. The post-Brooks transformation was instantaneous; Patrick started Fotiu against the North Stars, and he scored the game-winner by tipping in a Barry Beck shot from the point.As for the western swing, it has been, during the Brooks&rsquo; regime, a time when the team found its groove, cleared the air and prepared for the final weeks of the season. Crucial team meetings took place and the setting provided a relief from the Big Apple pressure-cooker.In the first game at Calgary, the honeymoon ended, or at least went into hiatus, with a 7-2 loss that contained many of the bad signs of recent months.The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the first period, gave up four goals in the second as they were outshot 19-7 and lost 7-2, with the final shots on goal reading 45-30 in favor of Calgary.And what Patrick had to say after the game had a very familiar ring, since it was, practically word-for-word, what his predecessor had said on many a night this winter: &ldquo;I think everybody tried to take matters into their own hands and do too much.&rdquo;The more things change, the&rsquo;more they stay the same.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0003-05219/4961320-1-eng-US/f0003-052.jpg" title="f0003-05" width="554" height="759"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nick Fotiu benifitted from the coaching change by scoring the winner against Minnesota.</figcaption></div>NOTES&mdash;To bolster spirit, the team is taking injured players along on out-of-town trips. Mark Osborne and Tom Laidlaw accompanied the team on the western trip, also assisting Patrick behind the bench. Meanwhile, defenseman Willie Huber faced the prospect of surgery&mdash;arthroscopic examination at the very least&mdash;on his chronically aching left knee. &#9632;

f0003-04

Rangers Feel Road Trip Can Help

THE INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY WEEKLYFounded in 1947 by Kenneth W. McKenziePUBLISHERDean HeineBUSINESS MANAGERTony DobranowskiEDITOR IN CHIEFBob McKenzieEDITORIAL DIRK TORCharlie HalpinASSISTANT EDITORPerry LefkoCONTRIBUTING EDITORSStan Fischler, Frank OrrDIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALESDanny LewickiADVERTISING SALES MANAGERRandy GreenADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVESFor Canadian Consumer Advertising Only Call:CCMC, Cliff Kivell. 287 MacPherson Ave.Toronto, Ontario M4V 1A4(416) 928-2909SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MANAGERPatricia BackNEWSSTAND SERVICES MANAGEREsther SumkaCIRCULATION DEPARTMENTJurate KakneviciusRosanne TaninoACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTTom MoffatMary CarubiaSPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGERHughes MarketingHockey News Bookshelf(416) 499-8227ADVERTISING AND EDITORIAL OFFICES85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Toronto. Ontario. CanadaM3B 2R2(416) 445-5702EXECUTIVE OFFICE850 Thiid AvenueNew York, New York10022NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTOR Distributed nationally by Disticor 101 Duncan Mill Rd., Suite L4 Don Mills. Ont., M3B IZ3 (416) 449-6430THE HOCKEY NEWS, (ISSN 0018-3016) is published weekly except monthly June and bimonthly July and August by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd., 85 Scarsdale Road #100, Toronto. Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2 (416) 445-5702. In U.S. do W.C.C. Publishing Corp., 850 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.40 ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION RATES $24.95 in the U.S.A. $24.95 in Canada $54.95 in Foreign Countries. Send all Canadian and Foreign subscription orders to THE HOCKEY NEWS. P.O. Box 13055, Postal Station A&rsquo;, Toronto, Ont. M5W IV7, U.S. subscription requests should be mailed to Box 904, Buffalo, N.Y. 14240. Please allow 4-6 weeks for processing.SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE HOCKEY NEWS, 85 Scarsdale Road #100. Toronto, Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2 Second Class mail Registration No. 1327. All inquiries pertaining to subscriptions should be addressed to Subscription Dept., The Hockey News. 85 Scarsdale Road. #100. Toronto. Ontario. Canada M3B 2R2.IN THE UNITED STATES: Second class post age paid at New York. N.Y and at additional mailing offices. U.S. POSTMASTER send address change to: The Hockey News. P.O. Box 904. Buffalo. N.Y. 14240Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations &#9632;

The Hockey News

<div class="byline">Frank Orr</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-011272/4961382-1-eng-US/f0004-012.jpg" title="f0004-01" width="386" height="430"></div>IF SOMEONE PRODUCES a dozen Pat Quinn clones and places them under Phil Esposito&rsquo;s care, he wouldn&rsquo;t mind a bit.Espo will send them on a tour of National Hockey League cities, conducting seminars for the players on all teams. The subject of the Quinnian lecture will be: How Not To Waste Your Time While Playing Professional Hockey.You see, Quinn, who doesn&rsquo;t have enough extra time from his job coaching the Los Angeles Kings to spread the word, earned a degree by accumulating credits at six different colleges and universities as he trekked around North America in his playing career. When he was sacked as the coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, Quinn enrolled in law school for two years, a course he plans to finish at summer school.The impetus for Quinn&rsquo;s hunt for the letters after his name came in his first post-junior hockey job&mdash;a defense spot with the Knoxville Knights of the old Eastern League. On that team were a few chaps in their late 30s who had travelled the blue highways of the hockey map and had a major choice to make on their lives: play in the Slap Shot of the EHL or take a job as a laborer or driving a truck back home in Canada.&ldquo;I talked with some players there who had spent their whole lives in hockey and didn&rsquo;t have any career alternatives,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I figured I&rsquo;d better start preparing for the real world.&rdquo;The Phil Esposito Foundation, off to a strong start in its effort to help hockey players make the transition to real life when their on-ice careers are finished, plans to expand its program.The proceeds ($130,000) from a recent exhibition game in Toronto between Team Canada &lsquo;72, the national heroes who defeated the Soviet Union&rsquo;s varsity squad in the first Summit Series, and a collection of former big-league stars, will be a large aid in helping the foundation grow.The foundation has granted direct aid to more than 20 players who had a dependency on alcohol or drugs or were having various problems coping with life outside of hockey. Close to 100 players have used the foundation&rsquo;s career counselling services.Now, Esposito wants to expand the foundation&rsquo;s horizons to prepare active players for the inevitable end to their careers and life after the cheering stops.Somewhat reluctant to get involved at first, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association are now showing signs of backing the foundation&rsquo;s projects more heavily in the future.&ldquo;When I started the foundation I think they figured that I might not see it through to any conclusion,&rdquo; Espo said. &ldquo;But I wanted to give something back to the game that had given so much to me and it seemed the best way to do it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve had some talks with both the league and the Players&rsquo; Association and we very likely will be working more closely together in the future. For what we&rsquo;re trying to accomplish, prevention is the best approach. We plan to conduct seminars with the players on each team in the NHL. The aim is to plant the idea that when they are playing, they should be planning ahead for the day when they&rsquo;re not.&ldquo;Our counsellors will talk to the players about continuing their education, taking correspondence courses during the season and going to summer school or getting involved in businesses or jobs that have a future.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why I wish we could get Quinn, who is on the foundation&rsquo;s board of directors, into every city to talk to the players. He&rsquo;s a great example of how not to waste time.&rdquo;A survey by the foundation of more than 1,000 former NHL players, coaches, trainers and officials revealed that 48 percent had not made plans for a second career. Of the 52 percent who had made plans, 95 percent were employed and needed 18 months to settle into a new career. Of the 48 percent who did no planning, 82 percent were employed and needed an average of 28 months to settle into a new career.&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re 21, in the NHL and making good money, it&rsquo;s tough to think that it will ever end,&rdquo; Esposito said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re not trying to spoil their fun, just to help them realize that it doesn&rsquo;t last forever.&ldquo;We also want to be able to help former players and their families who have hit crisis situations in their lives and need some counselling or a loan to get over a rough spot.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0004-01

Preparing For Life After Hockey

<div class="byline">BY JEFF Z. KLEIN AND KARL-ERIC REIF</div><h2>FOR ARGUMENT&rsquo;S SAKE</h2>This is the 40th anniversary of the Hockey Hall of Fame. These are the men who should be enshrined when the Ruby Anniversary induction ceremonies are held this September:ROY CONACHER&mdash;Roy Conacher died two months ago, and once again the Hall has missed an opportunity to honor a great player during his lifetime.Conacher, a star forward for 11 years with Boston, Detroit and Chicago, won&rsquo;t be here to appreciate the tribute if the Hall&rsquo;s selection committee ever take the time to look back and correct the oversight. But what&rsquo;s right is right. If it&rsquo;s too late for the Hall to honor the man, it&rsquo;s not too late for the Hall to honor his memory.Between 1938 and 1951, Roy Conacher was one of the best forwards in the National Hockey League.Breaking in with the Bruins in 1938, he proceeded to lead the league in goal scoring, notching 26 in just 47 games&mdash;one of the great freshman campaigns of all time. He added six more in 12 playoff games that season as Boston won the Stanley Cup, crowning his great year with the Cup-winning goal in the fifth and final game against Toronto.In both his third and fourth seasons, Conacher finished second in the league in goal scoring. And his game-winning goal late in the second game of the 1941 final against Detroit sparked the Bruins to another Cup, the last they would win for almost 30 years.After the completion of the &lsquo;41-42 season, Conacher entered the military. He served for the duration of World War II, losing four years from the very prime of his career.In 1946 he returned for his first full postwar season, in a Red Wing uniform at the age of 30. Despite the long layoff he racked up 30 goals in a 60-game schedule&mdash;second in the NHL once again. Two seasons later, playing for a weak Chicago club. Conacher led the league in scoring with 68 points and was named the league&rsquo;s first-team all-star left winger.He finally hung up his skates after two good seasons as the Hawks&rsquo; leading scorer. When he retired in 1951, he had scored 226 regular-season goals&mdash;10th on the NHL all-time goal scoring list at the time&mdash;and he had taken only 90 penalty minutes over 490 regular-season games.Conacher, with a record far more impressive than many of his contemporaries who have made the Hall, was never selected to ascend the plinth of immortality. The Hall&rsquo;s selection committee ought Jo redress this error immediately and place Roy alongside his brother Charlie and among those players forever revered for their greatness.VLADISLAV TRETIAK, BORIS MIKHAILOV, VALERI KHARLAMOV There is only one Soviet in the Hall of Fame&mdash;the great Anatoli Tarasov, the father of Soviet hockey. Immediately after his enshrinement in 1974, it appeared as though the Hall of Fame would finally recognize the existence of all the great hockey played outside North America. But no, the Hall has remained an impregnible bastion of insularity against any but those directly involved with the NHL or the most prominent and profitable sectors of North American amateur hockey.The Hall can end its period of smug isolationism by looking beyond these shores to select three of the brightest stars from Tarasov&rsquo;s Soviet National team of the late &lsquo;60s and &lsquo;70s: Vladislav Tretiak, Boris Mikhailov and Valeri Kharlamov.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0004-021188/4961413-1-eng-US/f0004-022.jpg" title="f0004-02" width="585" height="986"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bobby Clarke should be a shoo-in to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in September.</figcaption></div>These outstanding players, from a system which disdained the concept of individual stars, were so consistently brilliant in the dramatic confrontations with the best the NHL could muster that they became celebrities across Canada&mdash;despite a North American provincialism that childishly refuses to acknowledge their artistry and their spirit.The late, great Kharlamov was the small, swift, stylish winger of whom Tretiak wrote: &ldquo;His breakaways should be filmed and shown to children as instructional material.&rdquo;Kharlamov&rsquo;s linemate, Mikhailov&mdash;the all-time leading scorer of the Soviet Major League&mdash;was the volcanic captain of the national team, a clutch scorer whose simmering outrage at the bullying tactics and frequent thuggery of the NHL and World Hockey Association sides his teams faced forever exploded the idious myth of &ldquo;the roboted Russian hockey player.&rdquo;Tretiak, need anyone be reminded, was the extraordinary netminder who handled NHL firepower with such stunning skill and coolness. Yet there was a measure of joy in his play. In his articulate autobiography, he wrote, &ldquo;Occasionally I block a puck which is &lsquo;labelled.&rsquo; It should be a goal, but I stop it and I actually get goose pimples. I blocked it! It is an indescribable feeling.&rdquo;GUY LAFLUER&mdash;The Flower is a shoo-in for selection this year. All we&rsquo;ll say is this: Not only did Lafleur play like Baryshnikov dances, Lafleur even looks like Baryshnikov.BOBBY CLARKE&mdash;Clarke is another shoo-in. He should be inducted under his playing name of Bobby rather than his new handle, Bob.DANNY GALLIVAN&mdash;That voice&mdash;at once anxious and insouciant, crisp and drawling, displaying such an engaging intelligence, capturing the essence of play in lofty, literate, gracefully-winding passages of off-the-cuff poetry, paced with sudden twists and startling turns of phrase, laced with urbane insights that never failed to bring the electric atmosphere of the arena across a snowy television screen on a winter&rsquo;s Saturday night. &#9632;

f0004-02

Hall Of Fame Entry Suggestions

<div class="byline">By Bruce Hood</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-011138/4961444-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="342" height="445"></div>Q: In the Flyer-Islander game Nov. 18, referee Kerry Fraser awarded Ron Sutter a penalty shot. Already being shorthanded, Flyer coach Mike Keenan asked Fraser for two minutes instead of the penalty to wipe out the Islander power play in a close game in the third period. Fraser insisted on a penalty shot. Ron Sutter missed the penalty shot and the Islanders scored soon after and the game ended in a tie.After the game Keenan said that you should be able to have the choice of the shot or the penalty, or get the penalty if the shot is missed. What do you think the rule shoud be on penalty shots?Derek Hunsberger Mickleton, NJA: The penalty shot is one of the most exciting plays in the game of hockey, and more of them should probably be called&mdash;from the fan&rsquo;s viewpoint. If the option were left up to the coach in each situation, the tremendous suspense would be lost if it was suddenly announced over the public address system that the penalty shot was declined and a minor penalty accepted.Q: I read that if the puck strikes an official in the attacking zone so as to create an advantage to the attacking team, play is supposed to be stopped. I have never seen this call made in watching hockey for 15 years and I would like to know if this rule is in effect.Ken Madill Windsor, Ont.A: The referee and linesmen are considered part of the play in the same way as the boards or the goal post, and if the puck bounces off them, play carries on. However, if the puck bounced into the net off an official then the goal would not count. Also, if the puck bounces off an official and goes out of play, then the faceoff takes place where it was deflected off the official, not where it was shot from.Q: Could you explain the term &ldquo;Affiliated League Staff&rdquo; as used in the list of NHL officials in the Guide and Record Book? Also, under what circumstances and for what purposes would these &ldquo;affiliated staff be used in NHL games?Liz Craig Red Deer, Alta.A: Affiliated League Staff refers to officials who are employed by the National Hockey League and officiate in the American Hockey League. They usually are young referees who have the potential to make it to the NHL, and during the course of a season will be used in certain NHL games to develop them into full-time NHL officials&mdash;if they have what it takes.In past years, the Central Hockey League was used more for this purpose of development, but it folded at the end of the 1983-84 season after 21 years of operation.If you want your question answered, write to:ASK THE REFEREE6455 Northam Drive, Suite 100Mississauga, Ont.L4V 1J2All questions will be considered, but only those published will be answered. Personal responses are not possible. &#9632;

f0005-01

ASK THE REFEREE

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-02834/4961482-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="388" height="447"></div>Maneuverability is a prerequisite for being a good defenseman in the National Hockey League, and it certainly helped Bill White.White played for nine seasons (1967-76) in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Black Hawks.But before his arrival in the NHL, White spent another eight seasons in the minors, mostly in the American Hockey League with the Springfield Indians.It was during his stay in the AHL that White learned how to manuever so well. He gives all of the credit for this to former NHL superstar and owner of the Springfield club, Eddie Shore.&ldquo;Eddie Shore was a fundamentalist,&rdquo; said White. &ldquo;He was also very unpredictable. You never knew what he was going to do. And you never know why he did it when he did something.&ldquo;I can remember guys who had a great game and going along very well and then all of a sudden be benched.&ldquo;He benched a guy one night because his body position wasn&rsquo;t right when he was skating.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I learned to maneuver so well. Being a tall and lean person I looked awkward when I skated.&ldquo;So Shore made me do some very demanding drills so I could learn to be more movable. And because of all that hard work I became more maneuveable than I had ever been in my life.&ldquo;And it paid off for me later in my NHL career.&rdquo;Although White was named to the NHL Second All-Star Team three times (1971-74) and played in two Stanley Cup finals with the Black Hawks, he never played on a Stanley Cup championship team.White will tell you, though, that the Black Hawks should have won it in 1971 against the Montreal Canadiens and their rookie goaltending sensation. Ken Dryden.&ldquo;We were a much better team than Montreal that year, there is no doubt in my mind about that,&rdquo; said White. &ldquo;We should have won that championship against them.&ldquo;The Hawks had them down two games to none but we let them come back. Then they came from behind in both games six and seven to win it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll never forget (Henri) Richard scoring the winning goal in the third period of the final game game in Chicago. It was heartbreaking. And Dryden&rsquo;s goaltending was unbelievable.&ldquo;There is no doubt we should have won two Stanley Cups while I played for Chicago.&rdquo;But it was not to be. Following the 1976 season White retired due to an injury to his neck when nerve roots were stretched.Today, White, 45, lives and works in his native Toronto as a substitute teacher in the areas of building construction and graphic arts. He also works with former teammate, Pat Stapleton, with an organization called Fundamentals In Action.White misses hockey and has expressed an interest in someday returning to the game.&ldquo;I would like to be an assistant coach if I ever had the chance to return to the NHL,&rdquo; said White. &ldquo;I would like to work with defensemen.&ldquo;I see a lot of guys playing the game today at defense that seemed to be lost. An opposing player comes in and turns the comer on them and they&rsquo;re lost and don&rsquo;t know what to do.&ldquo;I think I could show them what to do.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-03583/4961475-1-eng-US/f0005-032.jpg" title="f0005-03" width="1198" height="862"><figcaption class="caption-body">Defenseman Bill White was a veteran of nine seasons in the NHL, but he learned to move so well while in the minors.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0005-02

White Learned To Move After Shore Showed Him

Here&rsquo;s what was happening 20 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; The NHL announced that club owners would meet next month to lay down plans fo future league expansion. President Clarence Campbell said the owners would devise a plan for expansion even if it took years to come about. He hinted that the NHL might even accept expansion bids as early as that summer.&bull; The NHL moved to help the struggling fifth-and-sixth place teams by enabling the bottom clubs to draft two players without dropping a name from its protected list of 18. The fifth-place team could draft one player without exposing a protected player.Here&rsquo;s what was happening 15 years ago this week in hockey:&bull; Bobby Hull was named the NHL&rsquo;s &ldquo;Player of the Decade in a special poll conducted by the Associated Press. Hull easily outdistanced second-place finisher Gordie Howe by more than 300 votes.&bull; Mike Nykoluk of Hershey became only the third player in AHL history to record 600 assists. &#9632;

THIS WEEK…20 Years Ago

1. Name the last team captain before Wayne Gretzky to be NHL scoring champ?2. In what season did the NHL make the two-goalie system mandatory?3. What two NHL referees later became NHL coaches?4. What two current NHL head coaches played on the 1960-61 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Black Hawks?5. Can you name a brother combination, one of which played in the 1973 Stanley Cup final, and the other in the 1973 Avco Cup final?6. Name the last visiting player before Mike Bossy to score four goals in one game versus the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum?7. What two Patrick Division teammates were both selected in the first round of the 1972 NHL entry draft?8. What brother combination played together briefly with the 1949-50 New York Rangers?9. Against which team did Guy Lafleur score his first NHL goal?10. What Norris Division defenseman made first team all-Ivy League at Brown University in 1977-78?Answers in next week&rsquo;s issue.<h2>Last Week&rsquo;s Trivia Answers</h2>1. Glenn Resch. 2. Jack Evans. 3. Al MacNeil and Fred Shero. 4. St. Louis. 5. Glen Hanlon. 6. Luc Dufour and Alain Cote. 7. Chicago. 8. 1979-80.9. Gordie Howe, 95 in 1951-52. 10. Toronto. &#9632;

TRIVIA

<div class="byline">BY BOB DUFF</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0005-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-04392/4961561-1-eng-US/f0005-042.jpg"></div>that the fastest goals from the start of an NHL regular season game (in seconds) are &#9632;

f0005-04

Did You Know…

<div class="byline">Stan Fischler&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-011319/4961592-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="377" height="445"></div>The stories said that Herb Brooks was fired by the New York Rangers.Forget it.Herb Brooks talked his way off the New York Rangers. That&rsquo;s the real story.There are no more brilliant minds in hockey than Brooks&rsquo; but, likewise, there are no more quicker tongues in the ice business and that, more than anything, explains why Herb is in Minnesota, contemplating his next six-figure, multi-year deal.&ldquo;He talked off-the-record and did it a lot,&rdquo; says Rich Friedman who covers the Rangers for THE HOCKEY NEWS.&ldquo;Herb ranted and raved off-the-record,&rdquo; added another reporter who covers from the Rangers. &ldquo;This man&rsquo;s whole life is off-the-record.Brooks talked&mdash;off-the-record, of course&mdash;about his players, about general manager Craig Patrick, about the writers, about anything.&ldquo;If I could print the stuff that Herb told me off-the-record,&rdquo; a Ranger beat reporter told me a week before Brooks got canned, &ldquo;he&rsquo;d be gone in a week.&rdquo;Shortly before Brooks was given the hook, another reporter told Herb&rsquo;s attorney, Arthur Kaminsky, &ldquo;Your client has a terrible habit of talking off-the-record to people. Then, Herb forgets and things come around (to haunt him.)&rdquo;And that&rsquo;s precisely what happened. Herb talked about his captain Barry Beck one time too many and one day Brooks picked up the New York Times and there it was: Brooks calls Beck a coward.The denials came thick and fast but those close to the coach had known that he had been down on Beck and was critical of the captain. &ldquo;Herb was disappointed in Barry,&rdquo; says a Ranger employee. &ldquo;He told me plenty about him&mdash;off-the-record, of course.&rdquo;For three years Brooks engaged in his off-the-record sniping with impunity. When you think about all that he had said, it is amazing that so little made print. The problem was that some members of the media treated him like Herb was the second coming of Buddha. Others figured he was the reincarnation of Moses and the rest were still blinded by his Olympic gold medal.&ldquo;He intimidated the stuffings out of everybody,&rdquo; says another New York writer.Well, not everybody. Craig Wolff nailed him, but good. It was the Times piece authored by Wolff, mentioning the coward episode, which specifically noted that the Madison Square Garden brass was planning to fire Brooks and replace him with Craig Patrick. The amazing thing is that a 26-year-old rookie reporter such as Wolff scooped his more seasoned colleagues who had been with Brooks since Day One of Herb&rsquo;s NHL stewardship.Wolffs rivals futiley tried to knock down his Beck-coward story. Brooks, with equal futility, attempted to downgrade the piece. What really mattered was that the Ranger players&mdash;and significantly, Craig Patrick&mdash;were behind the young writer.Yet, the opposition papers simply couldn&rsquo;t accept that they were beaten by the Times. The rival Post continually sniped at the coward charge. On Jan. 22, Mark Everson of the Post referred to Wolffs original scoop as &ldquo;a newspaper report which apparently mistakenly claimed Brooks called captain Barry Beck a coward.&rdquo;Everson: &ldquo;I think he (Wolff) was mistaken. I don&rsquo;t think he (Herb Brooks) said it (coward) because he&rsquo;s not a stupid man and it would take a stupid, ignorant man to call Barry Beck a coward. I checked with my own sources.&rdquo;But others, such as Newsday&rsquo;s Pat Calabria, tell me that they&rsquo;re convinced that Brooks said it and, furthermore, that some of the other writers resented being &ldquo;beaten&rdquo; on the story. &ldquo;They (the oppositon writers) were childlike just because Wolff beat them,&rdquo; says Calabria. &ldquo;They should have taken it like men.&rdquo;One wonders why Brooks used the off-the-record technique to such an excess. The most prevalent theory is that the namedropping was an integral part of Herb&rsquo;s mind games. (It should be noted that he used this technique in putting down specific newspapers and writers.)Another possibility is that the off-the-record sessions provided Brooks with a safety valve. Frustrated because he had been boxed out of policy-making decisions by Patrick and Ranger president Jack Krumpe, Brooks felt emasculated in his limited-position. &ldquo;I think Herb did a lot of talking,&rdquo; adds Friedman, &ldquo;just to get things off his chest.&rdquo;Another frustration was the team itself. Some privately said they loathed the man. Even when the club was doing well, they bitched about him. I recall an incident before a Ranger-Islander playoff game last spring when a player whispered his unhappiness with Herb. It seemed a very telling remark at a telling time.The dissension which infected the team need not necessarily have been fatal. Punch Imlach demonstrated during the &lsquo;60s that he could win four Stanley Cups despite widespread unhappiness with his style and personality.There was, however, one slight difference: Imlach could get away with it for a long time because he had the Cup rings with which to blind his critics. All Herbie had was the glitter from 1980&mdash;and that was fading fast.The fact of the matter is that the skids were being greased for Brooks more than two years ago. UPI senior editor Milt Richman accurately reported it more that two years ago. Since then Herb managed to infuriate the MSG moguls who held on to him only because they feared the consequences if they finally told him to take a hike.The disparaging Times piece, the depressing state of the team, and Brooks&rsquo; inability to infuse them with any life combined to end his professional career in New York.But, most of all, it was the man who spent so much time dispensing gossip, who, ironically, was a victim of one gab too many.WHO WON THE TRADE?&mdash;Dec. 21, 1983, Montreal Canadiens deal Doug Wickenheiser, Greg Paslawski and Gilbert Delorme to the St. Louis Blues for Perry Turnbull.BACKGROUND: French Canadiens were furious that the Habs neglected to draft Denis Savard and selected Wickenheiser, also a center, instead. The pressure on Big Wick was unbearable, and he proved something worse than a flop at The Forum. Meanwhile, Turnbull became a mini-hero in The Mound City, one of the best-checking Blues. Turnbull never wanted to leave St. Louis. Paslawski, a right winger, was a throw-in and Delorme, a defenseman, a surprise gift, considering his potential.RESULTS: Wick developed little momentum last season as an offensive threat but was a surprise defensively. He fininshed with 28 points in 40 games. Delorme emerged as one of the better Norris Division backliners. Paslawski remained a nonentity until this season. Turnbull was a complete turn-off in Montreal, flubbing his chance with a mere six goals and 13 points in 40 games. The Habs unloaded him to Winnipeg for Lucien DeBlois. This year after 47 games, Wick had 14 goals and 28 points: Delorme, two goals and 11 points in 42 games: and the surprising Paslawski nine goals and 19 points in 39 games. Turnbull, now in Winnipeg, has 11 goals and 20 points after 37 games, while DeBlois has eight goals and 11 points after 33 games.VERDICT: St. Louis trademaster Ron Caron won the deal going away, while bolstering his roster with much-needed bodies. It was one of the unsung deals of the decade.30-SECOND THIRD DEGREE&mdash;Jim Kyte, of the Winnipeg Jets, will you please take the stand.Q: I understand that without your hearing aids you would be totally deaf. How does this affect your playing hockey?KYTE: I play with my hearing aids in, but if it&rsquo;s very noisy I have difficulty hearing. I compensate by using my eyes more. In most major league cities you can see well in the reflection of the glass. When I&rsquo;m going back for the puck I can&rsquo;t hear the guy skating behind me so I look in the glass to see where he is.Q: So you do hear the noise of the crowd?KYTE: I can hear the noise but if I was playing poorly at home I wouldn&rsquo;t hear them yelling, &ldquo;C&rsquo;mon Kyte, move your butt!&rdquo; Sometimes they get on Dave Babych&rsquo;s case and it affects his play. But I don&rsquo;t hear that. If Ido, I can just block it out. lcan concentrate more on the play of the game by not being distracted by outside influences.Q: Do you think that any of your other senses have been enhanced because of the hearing impairment?KYTE: I use other senses more. For example, I don&rsquo;t think that many guys look in the glass when they&rsquo;re going back for the puck. It&rsquo;s using what you have, whatever is at your disposal, and using it to the best of your capabilities.Q: You&rsquo;ve said that in everyday life the hearing impairment sometimes works to your advantage. Could you explain what you mean?KYTE: Let&rsquo;s say I have a headache and I don&rsquo;t want to listen to anyone. I take my hearing aids out and I&rsquo;m my own world. In junior it had a lot of advantages. We would be on a road trip and they would be playing the radio. I would want to get some sleep and so would some of the other guys. They couldn&rsquo;t, though, because of the noise of the bus or the music. I would just take out my hearing aids and I would have a nice, comfortable sleep.Q: Did you lose your hearing in an accident or is it a hereditary problem?KYTE: It&rsquo;s hereditary. In that respect I was fortunate. If you are bom deaf it&rsquo;s not that tough, but if you are given the gift of hearing and then it&rsquo;s taken away from you it&rsquo;s more difficult. There are five boys and one girl in my family and all the boys, including my father, have a hearing impairment.Q: Was your dad the main force in bringing athletics into your life?KYTE: Definitely. He was Athlete of the Half Century at Saint Francis Xavier in Nova Scotia and he went to the Olympics. He was a spare for the high jump&mdash;they didn&rsquo;t have mats in those days. He was very athletic and it rubbed off on the kids.Q: I heard that you are working on learning sign language. What brought that on?KYTE: Last year I worked at the American Hearing Impaired Hockey School&hellip;better known as the Stan Mikita Hockey School. I really had a good time and I intend to go back this year. A lot of the kids knew sign language and I had to have an interpreter follow me around all the time. When I&rsquo;m on the road there are people who come to see me that have heard about my hearing impairment and I don&rsquo;t really know how to communicate. It&rsquo;s an international language and so I&rsquo;ll be a better ambassador for the game of hockey for the hearing impaired people. &#9632;

f0006-01

ON THE CONTRARY

<div class="byline">BY TIM MORIARTY</div><h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0007-011173/4961647-1-eng-US/f0007-012.jpg" title="f0007-01" width="588" height="165"></div>LONG ISLAND&mdash;Ken Morrow is ready to play hockey again&mdash;and the New York Islanders can hardly wait.The 28-year-old, bearded defenseman underwent knee surgery last Oct. 11, on the eve of the Isles&rsquo; season opener against the New Jersey Devils. It was announced then that he would be back playing in February, and he appears to be right on schedule.Morrow resumed skating several weeks ago. At first, he skated alone, testing his mobility and stamina. Later, he joined the Islanders at practice. He wore only &ldquo;sweats&rdquo; and shinguards and avoided any serious contact.&ldquo;Once I get into full gear and get a chance to scrimmage it will probably take me two or three weeks to get in shape,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It depends on how I handle the skating, but right now I feel great.&rdquo;The man his teammates call &ldquo;Wolfman&rdquo; has impressed the Islanders&rsquo; medical staff with his steady rate of progress.&ldquo;They keep telling me that I&rsquo;m moving ahead too fast,&rdquo; he said, laughing. &ldquo;But I feel so good, I want to push it.&rdquo;Morrow has been alternating his skating with therapy sessions at a Long Island hospital.&ldquo;On those days that I take therapy, it&rsquo;s very time consuming,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;1 spend about two-and-a-half hours riding the bike, working out on the Cybex, doing upper body work and sitting in the whirlpool.&rdquo;Asked if the conditioning routine is becoming boring, Morrow laughed again.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a bit of a drag,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You know from day to day what you&rsquo;re going to do. There&rsquo;s nothing to look forward to. When you&rsquo;re playing, there&rsquo;s always that next game to think about.&rdquo;Morrow attends all the Islanders&rsquo; home games and also has made a couple of road trips. On those nights when the Isles are not playing, he watches other NHL games on television.&ldquo;I have cable TV, so I watch some &lsquo;soaps&rsquo; and do a little baby-sitting with my two daughters,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different life.&rdquo;Morrow has had knee problems since he joined the Islanders in 1980-immediately.after helping the U.S: hockey team win the Olymic gold medal at Lake Placid. He got used to playing with pain, but there were times when he wondered if his knees would carry him through another season.Now all that doubt is gone.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m really looking forward to coming back,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Things haven&rsquo;t been going too well with the team this season, but they can be corrected.&rdquo;Morrow admitted he has encountered a lot of fans who keep asking him what&rsquo;s wrong with the Islanders.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t point to one thing&hellip;it&rsquo;s-collection of things,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been a lot of changes. Wayne Merrick and Billy Carroll and Butch Goring are gone. There&rsquo;s been a lot of injuries and a lot of new kids coming up.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve never stuck to the same lineup too long and now we&rsquo;re in a transition period. But there&rsquo;s still time before the playoffs, so we have to use that time to get back together and pull together.&rdquo;Meanwhile, the Islanders, undermanned since the start of the season, have to cope without goalie Bill Smith after he was suspended for six games for using his stick &ldquo;in an irresponsible manner on three occasions&rdquo; in a game against the Black Hawks at Chicago on Jan. 13.Smith was assessed two minor penalties during the game for stick incidents, one of which resulted in a fractured cheekbone to Chicago&rsquo;s Curt Fraser. The suspension was handed down by NHL vice-president Brian O&rsquo;Neill after the Black Hawks had requested a review of the incidents.Bill Torrey, the Islanders&rsquo; general manager, waived the right of appeal.&ldquo;While we find&hellip;O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s ruling most ambiguous&mdash;on one hand he ex-onerated Smith for any deliberate action and then punished him at the same time&mdash;the team nonetheless feels an appeal would only be an excercise in futility.&rdquo; Torrey said.Although Smith has been a principal in countless incidents, it was the first time he had been suspended since he turned pro 13 years ago.The suspension took effect immediately and will remain in effect through the Islanders&rsquo; game against the Penguins, Feb. 9. Because the suspension ends just as the All-Star game break begins, Smith will not appear in an NHL game until Feb. 16 at the earliest when the Hartford Whalers visit Nassau Coliseum.Todd Lumbard, who has failed to win a game while playing for two Islander farm teams this season, was called up to serve as the backup goalie for Kelly Hrudey. Lumbard was 0-5-1 at Springfield of the American League earlier this season, then was shipped to Flint of the International League, where he was 0-20. &#9632;

f0007-01

Islanders Will Welcome Wolfman’s Return

The International Hockey WeeklyFounded in 1947Published by W.C.C. Publishing Ltd85 Scarsdale Road, #100, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3B 2R2.<h2>All-Star Dilemma</h2>GRANTED, THERE ARE more serious problems the National Hockey League should be considering, but someone really ought to come up with an imaginative new twist for the annual All-Star game.Oh, the game isn&rsquo;t all bad. It&rsquo;s basically a time for the league&rsquo;s brightest stars to get together and socialize in the middle of a long regular season. It gives the hockey fans of a particular city, in this case, Calgary, a chance to see the big names under one roof and they are more accessible for autographs and photographs than is the norm.But the game really is rather boring. Nothing appears to be at stake.Perhaps it is the very nature of the beast, which explains why the National Football League&rsquo;s Pro-Bowl is a dud, too. Major League baseball&rsquo;s all-star game is a little more exciting, but that&rsquo;s only because that sport has a heavier emphasis on individualism. When a pitcher and a batter face each other, does it really matter which team they play for?But hockey, like football, is the ultimate team sport. And that&rsquo;s why the all-star game suffers.Suggestions for improving the annual affair are ever-present.Some would like to see the NHL all-stars play against the Soviet Union, a la the 1979 Challenge Cup.Some would like to see Canadian-born stars against their U.S. counterparts.Some would like to see a four-team divisional round-robin spread over a couple of days.And still others would like to go back to the old format of having the Stanley Cup champions play host to the all-stars.As for incentives, everything from a big cash bonus to deciding home ice for the Stanley Cup finals has been suggested.Many of these concepts have flaws or are simply impossible under the current format.But many have some degree of merit.The point being made here is that the NHL All-Star game could use an injection of enthusiasm. Even if it&rsquo;s only for a year, let&rsquo;s try something new. If, after the one-year experiment, everyone agrees that we&rsquo;re fighting a losing battle, then we&rsquo;ll happily resign ourselves to the Campbells versus the Wales&mdash;however boring it may be. &#9632;

<div class="byline">Perry Lefko&#x2019;s</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-011257/4961726-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="443" height="455"></div><h2>GUEST SHOT</h2>What a shame it was that so few people realized why Team Canada &lsquo;72 was reunited to play against a collection of former National Hockey League stars at Maple Leaf Gardens on Jan. 25.To be sure, the game did take everyone back to that special moment nearly 13 years ago when Paul Henderson achieved instant immortality by scoring the game-winning goal against the Soviets in the final game of the Summit Series. And it was also a treat to see the stars of yesteryear&mdash;Gordie Hove, Henri Richard, to name a couple&mdash;return and play a decent game of hockey.But how many people realized that the impetus for the game was the Phil Esposito Foundation, and that the Foundation services retired hockey players in need of assistance?&ldquo;I would like to think one of the reasons they (the people) were there was because they were behind the cause,&rdquo; says Warren Breining of New York, who works with Foundation in career counselling. &ldquo;But I think the main motivation for them attending was the event.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s what it was&mdash;an event. But it was a purposeful event. Aside from allowing people to relive some great moments, it was also a chance to show that there are some former hockey players out there who did not make a successful adjustment to &ldquo;real life&rdquo; after their hockey careers ended.Perhaps, as Breining notes, the Foundation itself was guilty of not having something other than the game to draw attention to its cause. Or perhaps everyone was just too caught up in the spirit of the event, that no one wanted to bother with stories about down-and-out hockey players or stories about athletes with problems.After all, these are athletes who are supposedly making big bucks, and if they&rsquo;ve blown their savings a la Derek Sanderson, then whose fault is it, really?But Breining is quick to point out that the public has a misconception about player salaries and that the Foundation isn&rsquo;t servicing the high-profile types.&ldquo;People think hockey players are retiring with windfalls of money,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The average salary, based on our composite figures over the last couple of years, is $117,000. If you take out the top five per cent, the average is in the vicinity of $80,000. If the average career is between 4.5 and 5.3 years&hellip;these guys are not coming out with windfalls of money. And the guys we&rsquo;re dealing with are not the Gretzkys and Potvins.&rdquo;So not only do these players end their careers without vast sums of money, they often enter the &ldquo;real world&rdquo; without any education or practical training. They&rsquo;ve invested their lives in hockey, and when it&rsquo;s over they have little more than their name&mdash;which may help to open the door but not for very long.The Foundation has set up a post-career planning program and in the case of Kurt Walker, a big, tough physical player who had stops in Toronto and Los Angeles, it&rsquo;s been effective. Walker, who was on hand for the game in Toronto to talk about the Foundation, said he was jobless after his career ended and, more tragically, he was an alcoholic. However, with the assistance of the Foundation, which also deals in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Walker was able to get a new lease on life and is now involved in business.Perhaps the most celebrated player who&rsquo;s come to the Foundation for help has been Derek Sanderson, the onetime Boston Bruin who signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Philadelphia Blazers of the World Hockey Association. Sanderson&rsquo;s life changed from that point on, as he used his money to buy everything and everyone. But it ruined him. both physically and emotionally, and he needed help.The Foundation came to his rescue&mdash;although he&rsquo;s now practically a cripple after steroid abuse deteriorated his hips&mdash;and he currently has a job with the mayor&rsquo;s office in Boston and is visiting schools, telling his tragic tale. Sanderson is reported to be making $30,000 a year, which isn&rsquo;t bad when you consider it&rsquo;s well above today&rsquo;s low-income level, but Breining says Sanderson would work for half that amount.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s legitimately seen he&rsquo;s come close to dying a few times,&rdquo; Breining says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s nearly self-destructed a couple of times. I think he&rsquo;s sincere now.&rdquo;But the point has to be made that people such as Walker and Sanderson are fortunate to be in a position to gain assistance from an organization which draws its funds, in part, from hockey fans&mdash;the average guy on the street&mdash;who may never have the opportunities (both economic and social) which are available to professional athletes. Perhaps there are some people out there who see athletes who &ldquo;blew it&rdquo; and interpret the drive for their rehabilitation as sponging of sorts.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t blame people for being a bit cynical,&rdquo; Breining says. &ldquo;But our goal is not just to help them (the players), but to make them useful in the community.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0008-01

Too Bad An Event Overshadowed A Cause

<div class="byline">BY DICK CHUBEY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0009-011239/4961757-1-eng-US/f0009-012.jpg" title="f0009-01" width="578" height="169"></div><h2>EDMONTON OILERS</h2>EDMONTON&mdash;-If Calgarians figured there was an Edmonton flavor to Team Canada, they ain&rsquo;t seen nuthin&rsquo; yet.Wait until they get a whiff of the National Hockey League&rsquo;s 37th All-Star game that&rsquo;s ticketed for the Olympic Saddledome on Feb. 12.Five members of the Edmonton Oilers were voted to the team, including goaltender Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr, who finished first and second, respectively, in the balloting by the members of the Professional Hockey Writer&rsquo;s Association from each Campbell Conference city.Defenseman Paul Coffey, center Wayne Gretzky and right winger lari Kurri were unanimous selections while Edmonton native John Orgrodnick&mdash;the talented left winger of the Detroit Red Wings&mdash;and Brian Sutter&mdash;the St. Louis Blues&rsquo; captain who hails from 90 miles southeast in Viking&mdash;were also picked.When it came to selecting eight skaters to fill out the team, Campbell Conference coach Glen Sather didn&rsquo;t have to look far and wide for three of his choices&mdash;defenseman Kevin Lowe, left winger Mike Krushelnyski and all-purpose forward Glenn Anderson. That swelled the number of Oilers&rsquo; on the team to eight.Sprinkle in Calgary defenseman Paul Reinhart (second team) and Allan Maclnnis (Sather&rsquo;s selection) and the Alberta flavor for the first-ever All-Star game staged in the province rose to 12 for the Campbell side.Perhaps the most interesting aspect involving the large Edmonton contingent centers on the goaltenders. There was bound to be a hue and cry from Calgary that Fuhr edged the Flames&rsquo; Reggie Lemelin for second place (64-61 in point balloting).Even Fuhr admitted surprise.&ldquo;I knew Andy would definitely make it,&rdquo; said Fuhr, who will be in his third All-Star game (twice as a backup), &ldquo;but I thought for sure they&rsquo;d vote Reggie in.&rdquo;There could be little denying that Moog probably isn&rsquo;t the most gifted goaltender in the NHL&mdash;even on his own team. But, he&rsquo;s certainly been enjoying the best season of any goalie in the conference (2.88 goals against average, 194-2 won-loss-tied record, as of Feb. 4).&ldquo;I was still surprised I was first,&rdquo; said the product of Penticton B.C. &ldquo;I thought there would be some sentimental voters for Reggie, because the game is there.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m more shocked really that they picked both myself and Grant. When one guy makes it he can be hot; when both make it, it shows the guys in front of you deserve a lot of credit. I think recognition will come to the team now that they&rsquo;re playing good defensive hockey.&rdquo;Moog may have shown surprise that both goal tenders are on the scene, but he wouldn&rsquo;t have had it any other way.&ldquo;I think it would have been an injustice if Grant hadn&rsquo;t made it,&rdquo; said Moog, who will be making his first All-Star appearance. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been spectacular this year. His numbers indicate he should be in the game, and his play indicates he should be in the game. Reggie has fine numbers, but they&rsquo;re not as good as Grant&rsquo;s.&rdquo;Here&rsquo;s how they stacked: Fuhr 3: 39, 19-5-4; Lemelin 3: 51, 19-7-6. A virtual toss-up, but there&rsquo;s no question where the Oilers&rsquo; preferences sit.&ldquo;Our guys are two great talents,&rdquo; deadpanned assistant coach John Muckier, &ldquo;they both deserve to be there.&rdquo;And they will&mdash;marking the first time two goalies were voted from the same team since a pair of New York Rangers, Gilles Villeneuve and Ed Giacomin, enjoyed similar status in 1971.Moog admitted he was looking forward to the assignment.&ldquo;Every other year when you heard who made the All-Star Team from the Oilers, your first reaction was to be happy for them. Your second reaction was to be jealous.&rdquo;No arguments could come with the unanimous choices&mdash;Gretzky (54 goals, 94 assists), Kurri (54-52) or Coffey (2052). Krushelnyski has been developing into one steady performer with 32 goals and 31 assists, including 14 goals in his last 13 games. With a suspension to Mark Messier and a knee injury to Kevin McLelland, the former Boston Bruin hasn&rsquo;t been living off the avails of Gretzky either. For the most part recently he&rsquo;s been playing center, although number 99&rsquo;s left flank appears to be his ultiumate destination. Anderson&rsquo;s (28-25) superb individual ability makes him an all-star in any league.That leaves Lowe.&ldquo;My point total is down quite a bit (four goals, 10 assists) and so is my plusminus (plus-10),&rdquo; admitted Low. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s a good reward to play and it&rsquo;s a fun time. It just makes it 120 games instead of H9.&rdquo;Sather wasn&rsquo;t about to leave Lowe stranded&mdash;not after the 25-year-old&rsquo;s performance in the Canada Cup or in the Stanley Cup playoffs when he was ranked third behind Messier and Fuhr for the Conn Smythe Trophy.Of course, if Sather figured he had his hands full attempting to upstage the Soviets to advance to the Canada Cup final in September, he found himself with another monumental puzzle on his hands. He was forced to find representatives from Vancouver, Toronto and Minnesota worthy of All-Star selection. He opted for Thomas Gradin, Miroslav Frycer and Tony McKegney.IN THE CREASE&mdash;The Oilers went undefeated through Mark Messier&rsquo;s 10-game suspension (8-0-2) for suckerpunching Jamie Macoun of Calgary on Boxing Day. Messier returned Feb. 6 in Winnipeg&hellip;Also on the verge of returning was defenseman Randy Gregg (strained left knee), while Kevin McClelland was still considered a week or two away (sprained left knee)&hellip;Veteran right winger Pat Hughes suffered a minor knee injury during the first game of a home-and-home sweep of Calgary and is out 10 days. &#9632;

f0009-01

Oilers Lead Provincial All-Star Contingent

When New York Islanders Mike Bossy, John Tonelli and Brent Sutter skate out to start the National Hockey League&rsquo;s 37th annual All-Star game for the Wales Conference on Feb. 12, it&rsquo;s only fitting that it&rsquo;s being played at Calgary&rsquo;s Olympic Saddledome.After all, it was just five months ago that the trio was put together, a move which paid handsome dividends then for Team Canada in the Canada Cup and one which has been one of the few bright spots in the Islanders&rsquo; 1984-85 season.Bossy, who had 39 goals and 45 assists after 48 games this season, scored the overtime winner that beat the Soviet Union at the Saddledome and put Team Canada into the finals of the Canada Cup against Team Sweden.In fact, the birth of that line&mdash;dubbed the Canada Cup line thereafter&mdash;really came about in Calgary.And when the Canada Cup was over, the Canada Cup line was just getting started.New York Islander coach Al Arbour chose to keep them together, though they have been separated at times. And the result is that Bossy, Sutter and Tonelli were voted to the Wales Conference first all-star team.Small wonder.Besides Bossy, the right winger who is at home when he&rsquo;s among the NHL leaders in goals and assists, Sutter and Tonelli have also exploded. Sutter, the center, had 32 goals and 44 assists after 52 ganes, while Tonelli, the left winger, had 28 goals and 39 assists, after the same number of outings.In voting by the Professional Hockey Writers&rsquo; Association&mdash;three writers from each of the 21 cities vote for the respective conference teams&mdash;Bossy was the only unanimous choice (165 points) in the conference. Sutter received 127 and Tonelli 125.Boston Bruin Raymond Bourque and Washington Capital Rod Langway finished one-two in defensemen balloting, with 155 and 150 points, respectively.Buffalo Sabre goaltender Tom Bar-rasso, who played well in the Canada Cup tournament for Team USA, only to flounder in the NHL regular season and earn a demotion to Rochester of the American League, bounced back and received 147 points in voting for the Wales&rsquo; top goaltender.Philadelphia Flyer goalie Pelle Lindbergh (93 points) will back up Barrasso, while Washington&rsquo;s Scott Stevens (65 points) and Montreal Canadien Chris Chelios (47 points) were named to the second-team defense.Up front, Washington&rsquo;s Bobby Carpenter (118 points) is at center with Philadelphia&rsquo;s Tim Kerr (89 points) on the right side and Quebec Nordiques&rsquo; Michel Goulet (74 points) on the left side.Wales&rsquo; Conference coach Al Arbour added Buffalo Sabre Bill Hajt and Philadelphia&rsquo;s Mark Howe on defense, with Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Mario Lemieux, New Jersey&rsquo;s Kirk Muller, Hartford&rsquo;s Ronnie Francis, Islander Bryan Trottier, New York Ranger Anders Hed-berg and Washington&rsquo;s Mike Gartner being added up front.In the Campbell Conference, which has lost seven of the nine meetings since the conference-versus-conference format was established, it was most certainly an Edmonton Oiler show.Oiler goaltenders Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr, 116 and 64 points, respectively, were named to the first-and second-team.On defense, Oiler Paul Coffey (one of three unanimous selections in the conference with 150 points) will be joined by Chicago Black Hawk Doug Wilson (121 points).Not surprisingly, Oiler Wayne Gretzky, at center, and linemate Jari Kurri, at right wing, were unanimous selections. They&rsquo;re joined by Detroit Red Wing left winger John Ogrodnick (141 points).On the second team, Fuhr is the goalie with a defense of Calgary Flame Paul Reinhart (97 points) and Winnipeg Jet Randy Carlyle (57 points) in front of him.Up front, Winnipeg&rsquo;s Dale Hawer-chuk (57 points) will center Jet line-mate Paul MacLean (47 points at right wing) and St. Louis Blue captain Brian Sutter on the left side (47 points).Campbell Conference coach Glen Sather announced his additions and they included three Oilers&mdash;forwards Glenn Anderson and Mike Krushel-nyski plus defenseman Kevin Lowe. The other additions included Los Angeles King center Marcel Dionne, Toronto Maple Leaf winger Miroslav Frycer, Vancouver Canuck center Thomas Gradin and Minnesota North Star winger Tony McKegney.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re happy with the way the allstar voting came out,&rdquo; said NHL spokesman Mike Griffin of the league&rsquo;s Montreal office.&ldquo;This is the second year in a row we&rsquo;ve gone with phone-in ballots from the writers and, by far, it&rsquo;s the most fair way to do it.&ldquo;Before, we had the ballots mailed in and that meant the votes were made by Jan. 3 at the latest. Now, we don&rsquo;t take the votes until Jan. 22 or 23. It eliminates a lot of problems, like the year that Glenn Anderson went on a real tear three weeks before the game but didn&rsquo;t play in it because all the votes were already in.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-011297/4961788-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="578" height="776"><figcaption class="caption-body">New York Islander Mike Bossy was the only unanimous selection in the Wales Conference.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;With 63 voters, you&rsquo;re going to get a handful of suspect ballots, but all things considered it (the voting) went very well. I think it&rsquo;s a good sign that in the Wales Conference, 31 of 33 ballots had only three names. It shows the writers aren&rsquo;t being homers.&rdquo;As for the game itself, it&rsquo;s a sold-out affair, as is the All-Star banquet on Feb. 11, which will feature entertainment by the Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers.The theme of the All-Star break is wild west, with cowboy boots, blue jeans and stetsons the order of the day.This year, for the first time ever, there will be honorary All-Star captains. Montreal Canadien great Guy Lafleur is the Wales Conference honorary captain while Hall of Fame net-minder Glenn Hall, who is now a joalie consultant with the Calgary Flames, will represent the Campbell Conference. Hall holds the NHL record for most All-Star appearances by a goalie with 13. &#9632;

f0010-01

Canada Cup Line Revisits Its Birthplace

<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2>Center&mdash;Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers, 150; Dale Hawerchuk, Winnipeg Jets, 57; Marcel Dionne, Los Angeles Kings, 45; Bernie Federko, St. Louis Blues, 12; Denis Savard, Chicago Black Hawks, 5; Bernie Nicholls, Los Angeles, 1.Left Wing&mdash;John Ogrodnick, Detroit Red Wings, 141; Brian Sutter, St. Louis, 47; Mike Krushelnys-ki, Edmonton, 31; Glenn Anderson, Edmonton, 21; Eddie Beers, Calgary Flames, 11; Brian MacLel-lan, Los Angeles, 7; Richard Kromm, Calgary, 5; Hakan Loob, Calgary, 3; Curt Fraser, Chicago, 3; Brian Mullen, Winnipeg, 1.Right Wing&mdash;Jari Kurri, Edmonton, 150; Paul MacLean, Winnipeg, 47; Steve Larmer, Chicago, 35; Kent Nilsson, Calgary, 16; Dave Taylor, Los Angeles, 15; Brian Bellows, Minnesota North Stars, 3; Ron Duguay, Detroit, 2; Joe Mullen, St. Louis, 1; Hakan Loob, Calgary, 1.Goalie&mdash;Andy Moog, Edmonton, 115; Grant Fuhr, Edmonton, 64; Rejean Lemelin, Calgary, 61; Bob Janecyk, Los Angeles, 13; Mike Liut, St. Louis, 10; Rick Wamsley, St. Louis, 3; Murray Bannerman, Chicago, 2; Gilles Meloche, Minnesota, 2.Defense&mdash;Paul Coffey, Edmonton, 150; Doug Wilson, Chicago, 121; Paul Reinhart, Calgary, 97; Randy Carlyle, Winnipeg, 57; Al Maclnnis, Calgary, 33; Kevin Lowe, Edmonton, 32; Mark Hardy, Los Angeles, 12; Curt Giles, Minnesota, 10; Charlie Huddy, Edmonton, 10; Tim Bothwell, St. Louis, 7; Dave Babych, Winnipeg, 4: Jamie Macoun, Calgary, 2; Brad Park, Detroit, 1; Reed Larson, Detroit, 1; Garry Galley, Los Angeles, 1; Gordie Roberts, Minnesota, 1; Rob Ramage, St. Louis, 1.<h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2>Center&mdash;Brent Sutter, NY Islanders, 127 votes; Bob Carpenter, Washington Capitals, 118; Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins, 15; Peter Stastny, Quebec Nordiques, 14; Bryan Trottier, NY Islanders, 9; Tim Kerr, Philadelphia Flyers, 8; Dale Hunter, Quebec, 2; Ron Francis, Hartford Whalers, 1; Mike Bullard, Pittsburgh, 1; Warren Young, Pittsburgh, 1; Dave Poulin, Philadelphia, 1.Left Wing&mdash;John Tonelli, NY Islanders, 125; Michel Goulet, Quebec, 74; Mats Naslund, Montreal Canadiens, 49; Brian Propp, Philadelphia, 33; Warren Young, Pittsburgh, 8; Charlie Simmer, Boston Bruins, 5; Anton Stastny, Quebec, 1.Right Wing&mdash;Mike Bossy, NY Islanders, 165; Tim Kerr, Philadelphia, 89; Mike Gartner, Washington, 41; Mario Tremblay, Montreal, 2.Goal&mdash;Tom Barrasso, Buffalo Sabres, 147; Pelle Lindbergh, Philadelphia, 93; Steve Penney, Montreal, 24; Pat Riggin, Washington, 21; Greg Millen, Hartford, 7; Kelly Hrudey, NY Islanders, 5.Defense&mdash;Ray Bourque, Boston, 155; Rod Langway, Washington, 150; Scott Stevens, Washington, 65; Chris Chelios, Montreal, 47; Brad McCrimmon, Philadelphia, 40; Mark Howe, Philadelphia, 37; Mike Ramsey, Buffalo, 33; Larry Robinson, Montreal, 27; Bill Hajt, Buffalo, 24; Denis Potvin, NY Islanders, 12; Dave Pichet-te, New Jersey Devils, 2; Phil Housley, Buffalo, 1; Mike O&rsquo;Connell, Boston, 1. &#9632;

NHL All-Star Game Voting

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-011185/4961920-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="404" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">Andy Moog</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-02908/4961913-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="406" height="450"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Ogrodnick</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-03673/4961906-1-eng-US/f0011-032.jpg" title="f0011-03" width="410" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Grant Fuhr</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-04542/4961899-1-eng-US/f0011-042.jpg" title="f0011-04" width="416" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brian Sutter</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-05440/4961892-1-eng-US/f0011-052.jpg" title="f0011-05" width="412" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Coffey</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-06382/4961885-1-eng-US/f0011-062.jpg" title="f0011-06" width="406" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">Wayne Gretzky</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-07346/4961878-1-eng-US/f0011-072.jpg" title="f0011-07" width="412" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Randy Carlyle</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-08324/4961871-1-eng-US/f0011-082.jpg" title="f0011-08" width="414" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Dale Hawerchuk</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-09311/4961864-1-eng-US/f0011-092.jpg" title="f0011-09" width="406" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Doug Wilson</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-10284/4961857-1-eng-US/f0011-102.jpg" title="f0011-10" width="410" height="444"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jari Kurri</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-11255/4961850-1-eng-US/f0011-112.jpg" title="f0011-11" width="406" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul Reinhart</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-12227/4961843-1-eng-US/f0011-122.jpg" title="f0011-12" width="414" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Paul MacLean</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-01

CAMPBELL CONFERENCE ALL-STARS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-13179/4962028-1-eng-US/f0011-132.jpg" title="f0011-13" width="402" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tom Barrasso</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-14139/4962021-1-eng-US/f0011-142.jpg" title="f0011-14" width="410" height="446"><figcaption class="caption-body">John Tonelli</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-15111/4962014-1-eng-US/f0011-152.jpg" title="f0011-15" width="406" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pelle Lindbergh</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-1684/4962007-1-eng-US/f0011-162.jpg" title="f0011-16" width="406" height="458"><figcaption class="caption-body">Michel Goulet</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-1770/4962000-1-eng-US/f0011-172.jpg" title="f0011-17" width="404" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rod Langway</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-1858/4961993-1-eng-US/f0011-182.jpg" title="f0011-18" width="410" height="452"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brent Sutter</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-1951/4961986-1-eng-US/f0011-192.jpg" title="f0011-19" width="404" height="456"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Stevens</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-2035/4961979-1-eng-US/f0011-202.jpg" title="f0011-20" width="408" height="466"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Carpenter</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-2129/4961972-1-eng-US/f0011-212.jpg" title="f0011-21" width="407" height="454"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ray Bourque</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-2228/4961965-1-eng-US/f0011-222.jpg" title="f0011-22" width="406" height="448"><figcaption class="caption-body">Mike Bossy</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-2322/4961958-1-eng-US/f0011-232.jpg" title="f0011-23" width="413" height="451"><figcaption class="caption-body">Chris Chelios</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-2420/4961951-1-eng-US/f0011-242.jpg" title="f0011-24" width="403" height="457"><figcaption class="caption-body">Tim Kerr</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0011-13

WALES CONFERENCE ALL-STARS

<div class="byline">BY TOM HENSHAW</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-011270/4962066-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="571" height="152"></div><h2>BOSTON BRUINS</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Butch Goring, at once the newest and oldest of the Boston Bruins, is happy again. His team is counting on him once more and, when you&rsquo;re 35 years old and reaching the end of a career, that&rsquo;s what counts.&ldquo;If they&rsquo;re going to play you regularly and in key situations, you know you gotta give a little extra and you&rsquo;re more involved in the game,&rdquo; he said after taking a regular shift, playing on the power play and killing penalties in a 6-5 victory over the Quebec Nordiques.Goring, a 15-year veteran with the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Islanders, with whom he won four Stanley Cups, came to Boston on Jan. 8 for the waiver price of $2,500 to fill a void at center when Barry Pederson was lost for the season with surgery to remove a tumor on his arm.The move has given Goring a new lease on his hockey life. In his first 12 games with the Bruins, he scored four goals and assisted on eight others for an even dozen points. He has been a bright spot in an otherwise drab, injury-riddled season.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a saviour and I&rsquo;m no Moses,&rdquo; said Goring. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going to do what I can do to help this team win. If that means helping off the ice as well as on, I will. I&rsquo;ll contribute any way that I can to help win.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still not sure of the attitude of this team. It&rsquo;s been a winning team and should have a winning attitude. I&rsquo;ll try to bring my experience and the positive things I have and hope that helps. I have no intention of being a nice guy who tries hard. I want to go out a winner.&ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m going back to the early days with the Kings. I never really played much on the power play on the Island. After all, I played behind Bryan Trottier. I didn&rsquo;t come here saying I have to play the power play or kill penalties. I just said I would like to play regularly.&ldquo;Steve Kasper is the No. 1 center as far as penalty killing is concerned and I&rsquo;m happy to stand in behind him. When he gets tired, I&rsquo;ll go out there and do the best I can. Kenny Linseman and I share the duties on the power play and I&rsquo;m happy with that. All I want to do is contribute.&rdquo;It was his failure to play regularly and contribute that soured his final half year with the Islanders.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no question about that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I like to play like anybody else. It was just the way things went on the Island. There was nothing I could do about it. I guess the time had come, the rope had ended. I wasn&rsquo;t playing and I wasn&rsquo;t happy.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t raise a big stink about it. The Islanders were good to me. I had four terrific years there, four Stanley Cups. I have no bitter feelings about that. It was a move that had to be made and I&rsquo;m happy it was Boston. I never asked to be traded or moved. I just said that I wanted to play.&rdquo;Goring is playing so much for the Bruins that he is even talking, a bit tentatively, about playing next year when he&rsquo;ll be 36, an old man in what has become increasingly a young man&rsquo;s game.&ldquo;I feel great because I&rsquo;m doing what I want to do,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a hockey player. That&rsquo;s foremost in my mind. I&rsquo;d like to coach some day but I want to play hockey right now.&ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t talked to Harry Sinden about next year. Right now, I told Harry my main concern is to see how my 40 games with the Bruins go, then 1&rsquo;11 make a decision. I&rsquo;ve got to see how I like to play regularly.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to say I&rsquo;ll continue to play when I&rsquo;m not playing, but to play regularly and get lots of ice time, maybe I&rsquo;ll say, &lsquo;Hey, it was good but I&rsquo;ve had enough.&rsquo; Maybe I&rsquo;ll want to retire.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021066/4962059-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="587" height="647"><figcaption class="caption-body">Butch Goring was given a new lease on life when he was picked up by the Bruins.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t want to give it up at this particular point. I&rsquo;m having too much fun. It&rsquo;s no fun sitting on the bench and I don&rsquo;t want to do that anymore. If that&rsquo;s what it comes down to then I would retire.&ldquo;I started my career sitting on the bench with the Kings. I had my good times with the Islanders and I went back to the bench. I think that&rsquo;s enough. I&rsquo;m back playing again and as long as it continues this way I don&rsquo;t see any reason to quit. I feel too good about my game right now.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0012-01

Happiness For Goring Is Feeling Wanted

<div class="byline">Bill Fleischman</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-03719/4962097-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="406" height="459"></div>IT IS 1985, isn&rsquo;t it?I know that people are starving in Ethiopia and we&rsquo;ve had a guy blowing away menacing kids on a subway in New York. But I thought we had at least reached a point in hockey where we were reasonably civilized.But nooooo&hellip;here&rsquo;s Mark Messier receiving a 10-game suspension for breaking Jamie Macoun&rsquo;s ja-w&hellip;here&rsquo;s Wilf Paiement facing a hearing for sticking Charlie Simmer in the face&hellip;here&rsquo;s Brian Propp getting four games for slashing Tim Hunter&hellip;and finally, guess who?Billy Smith, the old angel of the ice, is sentenced to six games by Brian O&rsquo;Neill, the NHL&rsquo;s Minister of Justice, for almost breaking Curt Fraser&rsquo;s face. Smith, the New York Islanders&rsquo; goaltender who has been wielding his stick like a weapon for years, just missed striking Fraser in the eye. Will this ever stop?Of course it won&rsquo;t. This is hockey, not horseshoe pitching. It&rsquo;s a rough, dangerous game. But there still is no excuse for players reacting to what they consider illegal tactics by driving their sticks into the faces of opponents.The Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; reaction to Smith&rsquo;s light sentence was natural and predictable. They were outraged. Smith commits the crime, but he will be out of the Islanders&rsquo; lineup for less time than Fraser will be missing from Chicago&rsquo;s roster.Black Hawk general manager Bob Pulford expected Smith to receive at least a 10-game suspension. Twenty games would have been justified.But the really incredible fact in this latest case involving Smith is that he had never even been called into O&rsquo;Neill&rsquo;s chambers before, despite his history of sticky swinging and butt-ending. Can you believe it? Here is the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leader in penalty minutes by a goaltender and his misbehavior had never been the subject for a hearing until he smacked Fraser in the face. If the league had suspended Smith earlier, he still wouldn&rsquo;t be acting like this.As if that&rsquo;s not enough to steam people around the league, get this: after Smith was only penalized for high sticking Fraser, on the ensuing power play he received another penalty for slashing Steve Larmer on the side of the helmet. What does this guy have to do, sever an opponent&rsquo;s arm or leg before the NHL yelps, &ldquo;Enough!Don&rsquo;t get me wrong&mdash;I&rsquo;m not a 100 percent anti-Billy Smith. Smith has been a helluva goaltender for the Islanders. And when he tries to defend his Middle Ages actions, he&rsquo;s a candidate for an Academy Award.Those of us who trek into dressing rooms after games want to put down our notebooks and tape recorders and pay admission when Smith climbs on his soapbox and launches one of his, &ldquo;What am I supposed to do, the guy was in my crease&rdquo; acts.When Smith&rsquo;s hockey career is over, he should follow Pat Quinn&rsquo;s path and study to be a lawyer. As O&rsquo;Neill said later, &ldquo;Smith was very clear in his defense. He&rsquo;s an articulate man.&rdquo;That he is, but after the six-game suspension was handed down, Smith felt like Melvin Belli or F. Lee B ailey after a rare loss in the courtroom. &ldquo;I talked for two hours and didn&rsquo;t do any good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Nothing I say will change anybody&rsquo;s mind.&rdquo;Maybe not, but it should make Smith&rsquo;s day to know that he has a compatriot in Bobby Clarke, of all people. During Clarke&rsquo;s distinguished 15-year career with Philadelphia. he and Smith had their share of battles. While Clarke is as upset as anyone ovpr the injuries Fraser, Macoun and Simmer suffered, he insists that another wave of &ldquo;hockey violence&rdquo; is not sweeping the NHL.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not violence,&rdquo; said the Flyers&rsquo; GM. &ldquo;Look at how many games are played each year. These things happen so infrequently. They are such isolated incidents that I don&rsquo;t think they put a black mark on the sport. It&rsquo;s a contact, collision sport and sometimes these things happen.&rdquo;Wait until the United States newspaper columnists who are only interested in hockey when these &ldquo;incidents&rdquo; occur read that. The average fan&rsquo;s impression of hockey is often drawn from these columnists, who wouldn&rsquo;t know Wayne Gretzky if they sat at a banquet table with him.Similar to many others in hockey, Clarke, who still wears the scars of his visits near the goalie&rsquo;s crease, thinks Brian O&rsquo;Neill should not be the NHL&rsquo;s sole administrator of justice.One problem with one-man rule in this department is it takes O&rsquo;Neill weeks just to call up a case. I also suspect that, after all these years of watching tapes and listening to both sides of the arguments, O&rsquo;Neill is weary of playing chief justice and would welcome help.One solution is to have NHL president John Ziegler involved in the most serious cases. Another suggestion is to use a panel, including former players.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Mr. O&rsquo;Neill should be giving these suspensions on his own,&rdquo; Clarke said. &ldquo;Maybe there should be a committee formed go look into these things. I feel the president should do it, but he&rsquo;s kind of the invisible man now.&rdquo;If I recall correctly, when Ziegler succeeded the legendary Clarence Campbell as president, one stipulation was that Ziegler would not be bothered with player discipline. Maybe it&rsquo;s time he changed his mind and at least formed a committee to study whether suspensions and fines should be handled by a panel. Something should be done and it&rsquo;s the league president&rsquo;s duty to get involved. &#9632;

f0012-03

Clarke Defends Bad Billy, But Suggests New System

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SCHULTZ</div><h2>BUFFALO SABRES</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-011196/4962128-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="582" height="163"></div>BUFFALO&mdash;It all began when the Buffalo Sabres lost back-to-back games on the road to the Boston Bruins (5-2 on Jan. 24) and Quebec Nordiques (4-2 on Jan. 25), two Adams Division rivals.It wasn&rsquo;t the fact that they were outscored as much as it was they were out-muscled by both teams. Then came a story in the Buffalo Evening News that said Sabre general manager-coach Scott Bowman might consider starting goaltender Tom Barrasso at center &ldquo;because he&rsquo;s tough.&rdquo;Bowman was irate that the Nordiques were constantly highsticking the Sabres, who were were not retaliating.The result was that the Sabres turned things around and defeated both the Nordiques (3-2 on Jan. 27) and the Bruins (6-2 on Jan. 30) at Memorial Auditorium.Although Bowman has been known to do the unexpected, he did not start Barrasso at center in either game at home.&ldquo;I thought it was a pretty good compliment,&rdquo; said Barrasso about Bowman&rsquo;s tongue-in-cheek suggestion. &ldquo;Toughness is part of being a hockey player. Not a major part, but an important one.&ldquo;It started in Boston. We were getting bumped around a lot by the Bruins. Our guys are not the kind of guys who are afraid to get hit. But we get involved more in scoring goals than we do bumping and grinding it out in the comers like Boston does.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s what you have to do to win games. We didn&rsquo;t do that with our two games on the road. But we did do it with these two at home, and you saw the results.&rdquo;Teammate Larry Playfair agreed with Barrasso about the concept of grinding it out.&ldquo;Successful teams are usually the ones that can do it all,&rdquo; said Playfair. &ldquo;They can score the goals, kill the penalties, forecheck and backcheck.&ldquo;But the teams that usually go the farthest are the ones that bump and grind it out. Let&rsquo;s face it: hockey is a very physical game. And playing physical isn&rsquo;t always easy to do.&ldquo;It is something we can do. But we have to concentrate on doing it.&rdquo;Sabre left winger Paul Cyr believes the Sabres have an advantage in playing the physical game.It is called Memorial Auditorium.&ldquo;In the rinks in Buffalo and Boston, you can take a player out of the play easier,&rdquo; said Cyr. &ldquo;And I think that you will find a few more physical games in smaller rinks than in the bigger ones.&ldquo;In those (big) rinks the free-wheelers have much more room to work with; in the smaller rinks they don&rsquo;t. I think we have a good advantage with our ice.&rdquo;If there is another advantage for the Sabres it&rsquo;s having Barrasso in goal. He was selected as the starting goaltender for the Wales Coference team in the NHL&rsquo;s 37th All-Star game, Feb. 12 at the Olympic Saddledome in Calgary.It&rsquo;s the first time Barrasso has been named to the All-Star team.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a great honor, there&rsquo;s no doubt about that,&rdquo; said Barrasso, now in his second NHL season. &ldquo;It was something I missed out on last year. That was a disappointment.&ldquo;It showed that the people who voted for me have confidence in me. It also proves the credentials I have to play in the NHL.&ldquo;But without my teammates in front of me I couldn&rsquo;t do the job that I&rsquo;m doing. They do a great job in helping me do mine.&rdquo;Barrasso has come a long way since late October and early November, when the young netminder was sent to the Sabres&rsquo; minor-league team in Rochester.&ldquo;Now that I&rsquo;m doing so well you don&rsquo;t hear too much about that anymore,&rdquo; said the 19-year-old goaltender who won the Calder and Vezina Trophies last season.&ldquo;But I wanted to make the All-Star team to prove a point. And I think I have proved that point now.&rdquo;SABRE POINTS&mdash;Defenseman Jim Schoenfeld is still out of the lineup with an inflamed tendon in his foot&hellip;General manager-coach Scott Bowman, who said earlier that the NHL had given him credit for victories that he didn&rsquo;t deserve and, therefore, hadn&rsquo;t set an NHL career coaching record, reversed his field recently and will live by the league totals. &ldquo;I was advised by the league to go by the records and I will abide by that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t know how many games Dick Irvin (whose mark Bowman broke) coached behind the bench either. So we&rsquo;ll let the issue rest.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0013-01

Sabres Decide It’s Time To Get Physical

<div class="byline">BY RANDY SMITH</div><h2>HARTFORD WHALERS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-02886/4962159-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="580" height="164"></div>HARTFORD&mdash;The boos have begun in Hartford and most of them, no matter how unfairly, have been aimed at goaltender Greg Millen.It goes with the territory, he tells himself. Like a pitcher in baseball or a quarterback in football, a goaltender is in the spotlight. He makes his mistakes on center stage, right there for all to see.&ldquo;The fans pay their money, so they can do what they want,&rdquo; said Millen, voted the Whalers&rsquo; most valuable player last year by his teammates and a good bet to win the award again this year. &ldquo;The goalie takes the brunt of a lot of fan reaction from frustrations and promises. It&rsquo;s part of my occupation.&rdquo;Then he lied.&ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t care less,&rdquo; he said.Don&rsquo;t be misled. The jeers cut deep. Millen is in the worst of all possible positions. He is a proud and competent goaltender on a team that leads the league in neither category.&ldquo;My confidence is not shaken, not at all,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know what my abilities are. Basically, we&rsquo;re struggling as a team.&rdquo;He had that right. After turning the comer into January in relatively good shape, the Whalers hit a 0-5-1 slide that threatened to end their playoff dream early.Again.&ldquo;The booing hurts, but it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;ve got to live with,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through this before.&rdquo;Of all the Whalers&rsquo; acquisitions, Millen unquestionably has given the team a considerable return for its money. He was signed as a free agent from Pittsburgh in June, 1981, and hasn&rsquo;t left the net since.In the last three seasons in Hartford, he has played 55 games once and 60 games twice. Last year he led the league&rsquo;s goaltenders in minutes played with 3,583. He&rsquo;ll come close to duplicating that feat again this year. Backup Steve Weeks appeared in all of seven games before being shipped to Binghamton because &ldquo;he needs the work,&rdquo; according to coach Jack Evans.Evans has claimed that the media has put the thought of being tired in Millen&rsquo;s head, but the coach probably forgot that the goaltender can count, too. Of the team&rsquo;s first 44 games, Millen started 37, including 20 in a row during one stretch.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never asked to come out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather play than not play.&rdquo;Millen&rsquo;s streak came to an end after two periods in a home game against Montreal. The Whalers trailed 7-2, and Evans sent out Ed Staniowski in place of Millen.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather have stayed in against Montreal and faced the music, no question,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I don.&rsquo;t like to come out. But that&rsquo;s the coach&rsquo;s decision.&rdquo;The Hartford Civic Center faithful do not know the real Millen and, worse, don&rsquo;t seem to want to. They feel betrayed by lofty promises and have vented their frustration on a 26-year-old goaltender who only wishes to be the best player he can be.&ldquo;One guy offered me his pads,&rdquo; Millen said. &ldquo;And another offered me a pair of glasses. It&rsquo;s unbelievable around here sometimes, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo;That it is. Even the trumpeted arrival of old pro Emile Francis and his well-travelled band of merry men, including Evans and assistant Claude Larose, both of whom are under contract until 1987-88 when Francis&rsquo; runs out, have failed to quiet the boo birds. Whaler fans want more. Now. And they expect Millen, above any other player, to give it to them.To shut them up. all one has to ask is, how many games has Millen lost?&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve let in my share of bad goals, but overall I think I&rsquo;m having a pretty decent year,&rdquo; he said.When fans chanted &ldquo;Ed-die, Ed-die, Ed-die&rdquo; for Staniowski, it was an open-and-shut case of Millen mockery. The fans simply refuse to get behind him.The saddest part of the whole scenario is, if everybody on the Whalers played as well as Millen, they wouldn&rsquo;t be in this spot to begin with. &#9632;

f0013-02

No Mercy For Millen In Hartford

<div class="byline">BY STAN FISCHLER</div>The National Hockey League still has not fully allowed the media into its 21 teams&rsquo; dressing rooms. The Toronto Maple Leafs, in particular, continue to stonewall female reporters. In the most recent episode, coach Dan Maloney barred Helene Elliot of Newsday as well as TV reporter Joni Dattilo following an Islander-Leaf game at Nassau Coliseum. Irate over Maloney&rsquo;s refusal to let her compete equally with male reporters, Elliott protested to NHL president John Ziegler, who is studying the complaint. League rules provide for equal access or alternate arrangements for females, neither of which were made by Maloney&hellip;The mystery over who leaked Herb Brooks&rsquo; &ldquo;Barry Beck is a coward&rdquo; quote to the New York Times remains unsolved, although the evidence indicates that two Ranger player obtained the info from Beck and then squealed. Beck and just-fired Ranger coach Herb Brooks were together at the meeting when the insulting statement was made. Another theory making the rounds is that the &ldquo;coward&rdquo; quote was planted with New York Times reporter Craig Wolff by a couple of dissident Rangers who had hoped to undermine Brooks and thereby bring about his downfall. The suspect in this scenario is one of the more intellectual members of the Blueshirts. Madison Square Garden insiders enjoyed a cynical laugh after the Rangers won their first game for general manager-coach Craig Patrick. The cause of the guffaw was a comment by captain Beck to the effect that the Rangers &ldquo;won that for Herbie.&rdquo; Considering Beck&rsquo;s deteriorating relationship with Brooks, it sounded like a lot of hypocrisy.Despite negative reports about Nick Polano&rsquo;s future, Red Wing GM Jimmy Deveilano continues to support his coach. &ldquo;There&rsquo;ll be no change,&rdquo; Deveilano tells BLUELINES. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m behind him and will work with Nick to turn the team around.&rdquo; Jimmy D. says he has no regrets about acquiring Darryl Sittler from the Flyers. &ldquo;This is my reasoning,&rdquo; Deval-lano explains: &ldquo;Our first-round pick wasn&rsquo;t ready to play and we needed somebody in the middle just in case somebody got hurt.&rdquo;&hellip;Tim Young dislikes being on a yo-yo between Hershey and Philadelphia. &ldquo;This is my first and last year in the minors,&rdquo; says Young. &ldquo;If I&rsquo;m not back in the NHL next fall 1&rsquo;11 retire, go back to Minnesota and get a job. I still think I can play, but it seems all the teams are going for the young guys.&rdquo;&hellip;Ron Duguay was among the many members of Rangers&rsquo; alumni who were not surprised by the axing of Herb Brooks. &ldquo;When I played for him, Duguay tells BLUELINES, &ldquo;he didn&rsquo;t communicate, and when March came he didn&rsquo;t have the players behind him.&rdquo;&hellip;In Hartford, more and more unhappy voices are being heard on talkshows and elsewhere over the Whalers&rsquo; failure to be more competitive in the Adams Division. One prevailing view is that goalie Greg Millen has been overworked, and Jack (Tex) Evans&rsquo; club lacks a good backup goalie. Another serious Whaler playoff failure will not only cast doubt on Evans, but also on his boss, Hartford hockey czar, Emile (Cat) Francis. The Cat, whose contract runs out in 1988, has assured Tex that he will remain there as long as Francis runs the club.A ribald play about Leaf owner Harold Ballard starts Feb. 20 at Toronto&rsquo;s Theatre Passe Muraille. For legal reasons, the theatre is not using Ballard&rsquo;s name as the title of the play, but a contest is being run to find an alternate monicker. Toronto actor Howard Jerome portrays Ballard, who, by the way, is said to be quite pleased with the idea of the play&hellip;&ldquo;NHL Action &lsquo;85,&rdquo; a new, U.S.-based weekly half-hour hockey show makes it debut on March 2-3 on select TV stations across the country. Emceed by Al Albert (onetime Ranger farmhand goalie), the show will have a magazine format, accenting feature material, and will be shown on ABC affiliates in Chicago, Washington, Detroit, Boston, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New York, among others&hellip;King players confess that they miss Charlie Simmer on a personal level but find that Brian McClelland has filled in adequately production-wise&hellip;The Flyers unexpectedly drew a crowd of more than 9,000 to the &ldquo;Fight for Lives&rdquo; carnival tossed by the players&rsquo; wives at The Spectrum. The club raised $210,000 for the Barry Ashbee Memorial for Leukemia Research Laboratories at Hahnemann University compared to $175,000 the previous year. Club prexy Jay Snider was the man behind the success. In a city where club execs are often sniped at by fans, Snider worked a Phil Newman talk show for two hours recently without receiving one negative I call. The Flyers are still getting positive feedback for their super Bobby Clarke night&hellip;Marcel Dionne, who has invested so well in California, I has experienced a positive attitude change under coach Pat Quinn! friends say, and is thinking playoffs rather than personal business for a change&hellip;Hollywood comedien Harris Peet, who teamed with Gordie Howe on the Cup-winning Red Wings at the 1984 &ldquo;Reach For the Stars&rdquo; tourney, will be profiled on Los Angeles&rsquo; KNBC-TV. When he&rsquo;s not doing his comedy rutines, Peet is a serious goaltender who occasionaly works out with the Kings&hellip;Devil play-by-play ace Larry Hirsch will marry Susan Zimmerman. When she asked him to set a date, Susan did a double-take when Hirsch replied: &ldquo;After we (the Devils) win the Stanley Cup!&rdquo; Hirsch&rsquo;s ratings&mdash;along with sidekick Fred Shero&mdash;have climbed this year&hellip;Don Cherry tells BLUELINES that there&rsquo;s no truth to the report by the Calgary Herald&rsquo;s&nbsp;Steve Simmons that Grapes was contacted by the Vancouver Canucks for the vacant coaching job. &#9632;

BLUELINES

<div class="byline">BY NEIL MILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-011248/4962214-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="573" height="154"></div><h2>CHICAGO BLACK HAWKS</h2>CHICAGO&mdash;Mt. Orval was strangely silent, leaving it to St. Louis coach Jacques Demers to quietly put the Chicago Black Hawks&rsquo; lost weekend in perspective.&ldquo;I hope Orval Tessier will not lose his job because of the Blues,&rdquo; said Demers. &ldquo;1 like the guy.&rdquo;But, a few hours later the Black Hawk coaching career of the controversial and outspoken Tessier came to an end when he was fired by general manager Bob Pulford.For the second time in the last three years, Pulford found himself in a situation where he felt he was forced to take over as coach of the Hawks.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel we were going anywhere,&rdquo; said Pulford, whose decision was inspired by the Hawks&rsquo; 6-4 loss to the Blues before 17,347 crestfallen customers at Chicago StadiumIt was the second defeat inflicted by St. Louis in 16 hours, the Hawks&rsquo; fourth consecutive loss, and it left them eight points behind the Blues who seem on the verge of turning the Norris Division race into a landslide.Tessier was neither seen nor heard after this reversal that also was the Hawks&rsquo; fourth loss in a row on home ice. After the firing was announced at Monday&rsquo;s practice, Tessier also was not available.But the night before he lost his job&mdash;after the Hawks were beaten 5-1 in St. Louis&mdash;Tessier took some shots at management, expressing doubts that the Hawk organization has the human resources to fill the gaping holes on the injury-riddled roster.&ldquo;The situation is that if you&rsquo;ve got to start the game with a 19-year-old defenseman (Marc Bergevin) on left wing, there&rsquo;s more than meets the eye,&rdquo; said Tessier. &ldquo;Our third line consisted of three checkers.&ldquo;If anybody can&rsquo;t see we don&rsquo;t have hockey players now, he has to be blind.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the same problem as last year when injuries hit. Never once have we been able to bring in one guy to fill in adequately. You can&rsquo;t replace the Darryl Sutters and Al Secords for months and months. You can plug a hole for a game or two with what we have but that&rsquo;s it.&ldquo;How long can you go on asking guys like Doug Wilson and Bob Murray and Troy Murray to do double and triple duty?&ldquo;But I guess nobody believes that anyway, so what difference does it make?&rdquo;Pulford disagrees with Tessier&rsquo;s assessment.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel we&rsquo;re that far away from being a contender for the Stanley Cup, but our record doesn&rsquo;t show it,&rdquo; said the Hawk GM. &ldquo;I feel this team can still win the division.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;It&rsquo;s probably an unfair situation, but you can&rsquo;t fire 20 players.&rsquo;</blockquote>&ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t improve, it will prove to us all that we have to make changes. We have to produce.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably an unfair situation. In all sports, when a team doesn&rsquo;t do well, the coach takes the brunt of the blame. But you can&rsquo;t fire 20 players.&ldquo;Orval is a fine man, and I hope he stays in the organization.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think any two people agree on everything, but I don&rsquo;t think Orval and I ever had a real argument. He felt we needed a solid high-scoring right wing, and I don&rsquo;t think there&rsquo;s any doubt that we do, but the guys available are hard to get. We&rsquo;ve offered numerous deals, some involving draft choices, but we haven&rsquo;t been able to get anything.&rdquo;The last time Pulford took command under similar circumstances was when Keith Magnuson was forced out in Feb. 19, 1982, when the Hawks were in an even worse slump.The Hawks continued to have problems during the remainder of that season, finishing fourth in the division, then did an about-face in the playoffs and went to the Stanley Cup semi-finals before losing to Vancouver.Ironically, Vancouver&rsquo;s head coach at the time was Roger Neilson, now the assistant coach in Chicago.&ldquo;I thought about having Roger take over, but I felt it would have been an unfair situation,&rdquo; said Pulford. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my responsibility to turn this thing around.&rdquo;Pulford said he believes the Hawks &ldquo;have more talent now&rdquo; than when he took over from Magnuson.&ldquo;We have people like Troy Murray now; a youngster like Ed Olczyk; and Denis Savard is more mature,&rdquo; Pulford said.&ldquo;Something had to happen,&rdquo; said Hawk center Tom Lysiak. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s his (Tessier&rsquo;s) fault or not, we&rsquo;ll find out. Every team in the league has a personality, except us.&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t say this is a skating team, a checking team, an offensive team or a defensive team. We don&rsquo;t know what we are. Every day we&rsquo;re something different. We use to be a hitting and a checking club, and we&rsquo;ve lost that.&rdquo;Some believe that the Hawks lost their will to win under Tessier after his infamous &ldquo;heart transplant&rdquo; tirade following the team&rsquo;s second loss in Edmonton during the 1983 Stanley Cup finals. In that outburst&mdash;one of many in his tenure in Chicago&mdash;he said he wanted to send the entire team to the Mayo Clinic for a heart transplant.&ldquo;It hurt at the time, but we stunk the joint out that night,&rdquo; said defenseman Bob Murray. &ldquo;It may have hurt a few guys&rsquo; egos, and they may never have recovered, but we&rsquo;re supposed to be professionals. In this business, you have to take the good with the bad.&ldquo;We keep telling everybody how good we&rsquo;re supposed to be. Now. the onus is on us to put up or shut up,&rdquo; &#9632;

f0014-01

Pulford Becomes Coach After Mt. Orval Is Fired

<div class="byline">BY GLENN COLE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-011178/4962245-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg" title="f0015-01" width="583" height="171"></div><h2>MONTREAL CANADIENS</h2>MONTREAL&mdash;Mike McPhee could almost be called the unknown Montreal Canadien.The quiet young man from Cape Breton slips in and out of the Canadiens&rsquo; dressing room, seldom being chased down by the media hordes that invade the Montreal chambers. On the team bus or charter plane, he sits quietly, watching attentively or reading a book.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really like publicity that much,&rdquo; says McPhee. &ldquo;The type of game I play, I don&rsquo;t get a lot of goals. I just go out there and do my job in a more of a defensive role. A lot of times you don&rsquo;t get recognition for it.&rdquo;Every team needs at least one Mike McPhee or three in the modern-day NHL. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. the 25-year-old native of Sydney, N.S., fits comfortably into the plans of coach Jacques Lemaire. A plumber&rsquo;s job is never spectacular and never will be.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if I like the name plumber that much,&rdquo; McPhee admitted. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;d rather be called a journeyman. You can&rsquo;t have 20 goal scorers on the team, nor can you have 20 defensive players. You need a blend. It just so happens I am one of those journeymen.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t always that way for McPhee. In 1980-81. he scored 28 goals in 29 games for RPI, the season after the Canadiens selected him 124th overall in the 1980 entry draft.He joined the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and played 42 games in 1982-83 for the Canadiens&rsquo; American Hockey League farm team and had 22 goals in 67 games for the Vees last season before playing the final month of the season in Montreal. Even though he played in 15 playoff games last spring, McPhee felt he was in a battle to stay in the NHL.&ldquo;I definitely wasn&rsquo;t guaranteed a spot this year in training camp.&rdquo; McPhee said. &ldquo;They had a lot of good junior players, a couple of guys they had drafted coming to camp like Shayne Corson and Claude Lemieux. I heard a lot about Corson and I knew Lemieux had a chance to make the team.&rdquo;As it turned out. Corson and Lemieux were returned to their junior teams early in the NHL pre-season schedule while McPhee avoided a trip to the Canadiens&rsquo; AHL farm team in Sherbrooke.&ldquo;Each year when you come to training camp, there are certain guys who are assured of getting a job,&rdquo; McPhee added. &ldquo;I think I have to come into each training camp and work hard trying to regain the spot that I had the year before.&rdquo;There is no doubt the MePhee labors diligently to hold on to his position in the starting lineup. There have been occasions this season when Lemaire has cast him in a designated sitter&rsquo;s role, but for the most part McPhee has become a regular and is often on the ice in critical defensive situations.McPhee has played on a line with Mark Hunter on the right wing and Ryan Walter at center. He has also worked with Hunter and Bobby Smith, and when Ron Flockhart joined the Canadiens in early November, he was put in between McPhee and Hunter for three games of a western road trip. When the team returned to Montreal, Flockhart, Hunter and McPhee were split up and haven&rsquo;t been back together.&ldquo;Jacques tries different combinations,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;If guys are put together and they don&rsquo;t go well for a few games, if they are getting too many goals scored against them, then he&rsquo;ll make the change.&ldquo;When you have 14 forwards on the team, there are a lot of different combinations that can be tried. A lot of times when you pay with a fresh linemate, it&rsquo;s good. The idea of switching around is good.&rdquo;McPhee is just happy he is one of the men that Lemaire has at his disposal to switch around and that he is no longer riding the buses of the AHL from Hershey to Halifax and points in between. Lemaire&rsquo;s system seems to fit his style of play almost perfectly and certainly the Montreal coach has a lot of faith in the 6-foot-2, 205-pound left winger.&ldquo;I know I have to play a lot like I did last year when I came up,&rdquo; McPhee noted. &ldquo;I know he expects me to play a defensive style. He put me on a line with a couple of other guys and he expected me to be the guy coming back.&ldquo;I know he wants me to be aggressive. If I don&rsquo;t play that way, I&rsquo;m not going to be any use to the team. If I&rsquo;m standing still, I&rsquo;m not going to make things happen out there.&rdquo;IN PASSING&mdash;Chris Chelios returned to the Canadiens&rsquo; lineup in Vancouver even though his ailing right ankle is not totally healed. Chelios had two busloads of fans from San Diego on hand to watch him perform in Los Angeles. Ron Flockhart, out since Jan. 8 with a shoulder separation, should return to active duty just after the All-Star break&hellip;Doug Soetaert has yet to agree to a new contract with the Canadiens, but is confident the problem will be solved within the next few weeks&hellip;With the return of Chelios, Ric Nattress was sent back to Sherbrooke. &#9632;

f0015-01

It’s A Journeyman’s Life Playing for Habs

<div class="byline">BY PERRY LEFKO</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-011049/4962276-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="571" height="193"></div><h2>TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS</h2>TORONTO&mdash;The sign at Maple Leaf Gardens said, &ldquo;We Want Walt,&rdquo; but the question is, does the &ldquo;we&rdquo; include the Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; management?Poddubny, the Leafs&rsquo; veteran left winger who has been ready to play after a knee injury sidelined him in December, was asked by management to go down to the minors on Jan. 29. However, after talking to his agent, Gene McBumey, Poddubny decided not to report. The fact Poddubny was not given assurance as to the length of his stay in the minors was the reason for his reluctance.The Leafs then placed Poddubny on recallable waivers, and he was reportedly claimed by three teams, one of which was Norris Division rival Detroit.Now, McBurney says the &ldquo;ball is in the Leafs&rsquo; court.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s up to them as to what they want to do with Walter.&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There are a number of things that can come about, but Walter definitely wants to play with the Leafs. He has no deep or abiding love with any other city. He&rsquo;s never had a problem with management. He thinks very highly of (coach) Dan Maloney and (general manager) Gerry McNamara. They&rsquo;ve stuck by him. He was injured much of last reason.&rdquo;McNamara, who prefers to keep his conversations private, has said little on the situation, but McBumey says the Leaf GM has been &ldquo;nothing but straigh-forward with me. He&rsquo;s dealt with me in a very honest way.&rdquo;Poddunby is leaning toward going to the minors.&ldquo;I want to play with the Leafs, of course,&rdquo; he says.&rdquo; I want to go down for a couple of weeks and then, hopefully, the Leafs can use me.&rdquo;He adds that much of the talk in the papers about his status has been &ldquo;blown out of proportion.&rdquo;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no animosity from either part, I think&hellip;I know,&rdquo; Poddubny says. &ldquo;I never expected to walk back into my old job&mdash;I would have liked to have been spotted&mdash;but I can see management&rsquo;s view. But this way I&rsquo;ll go down and there&rsquo;ll be no doubts.&rdquo;Because Poddubny is a protected player, the Leafs were able to exercise their right to recall him. However, teams are only given one such right after Nov. I, so if Poddubny does go down for the two-week period, the Leafs will either have to call him back up or risk the possibility of losing him on waivers. Earlier, the Leafs sent defenseman Bill Root to the minors and were expected to call him back up after the two-week period, but they chose to leave him down there and he was not claimed by any other team.Poddubny, because of an acute shortage of decent left wingers, may be scooped up should the Leafs risk waivers, but he&rsquo;s hoping they won&rsquo;t take that route.Neither is linemate Miroslav Frycer.&ldquo;I feel very bad because he&rsquo;s one of my best friends in Canada,&rdquo; says the Czechoslovakian defector. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a good player and a good friend.&rdquo;Gary Leeman has taken Poddubny&rsquo;s spot on the line with Frycer and Peter Ihnacak, and the fact he&rsquo;s been playing so well the last while was one of the reasons Maloney was reluctant to bring back Poddubny.Frycer said it&rsquo;s tough breaking in a new winger, which may explain why the two Europeans went through a dry spell.&ldquo;It always takes some time to play with a new guy,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing with Peter for three years and I know him from Czechoslovakia. I prefer Walt. We were great together.&ldquo;Right now, we&rsquo;re talking together, telling him (Leeman) what he should do.&rdquo;Leeman, who is happy management is showing confidence in him, says he can adjust to Frycer and Ihnacak&rsquo;s game.&ldquo;I can play that style&mdash;skating, shooting and passing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The more I play, the better I will get to know them.&rdquo;Ironically, earlier in the season Leeman was sent to the minors and he initially balked.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a numbers game, my number came up and it was time to go down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s something every player has to go through. I just wanted them, to know I was good enough to play&mdash;and I was&mdash;but my turn came up and I went down after a couple of days. I may have been a little bit stubborn, but that&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;LEAFLETS&mdash;Miroslav Frycer has been chosen by Glen Sather for the Campbell Conference All-Star team. &ldquo;I was very excited and shocked when they told me,&rdquo; Frycer said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a big honor for me. I&rsquo;m a European player&rdquo;&hellip;Dan Daoust was the Leafs&rsquo; winner in the third segment of the Molson Cup. Daoust has been hot of late, as have linemates Rick Vaive and John Anderson&hellip;Bill Stewart reported to the minors after a brief holdout&hellip;Ken Strong was sent flying into the goal post in a game against Min-nesota, but was not seriously injured. &#9632;

f0016-01

Poddubny Wants To Stay With The Leafs

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0017-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-03581/4962369-1-eng-US/f0017-032.jpg"></div>Playing on a line with Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri obviously agrees with Mike Krushelnyski.The Edmonton Oiler left winger scored six goals and three assists in four victories to earn THE HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; Player-of-the-Week honors for the week ending Feb. 3.Krushelnyski, who came to the Oilers from the Boston Bruins for Ken Linseman, scored a hat trick against the New York Rangers and had one winning goal.After 53 games, he had 32 goals and 32 assists. &#9632;

f0017-03

Player Of The Week

<div class="byline">BY REYN DAVIS</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-01924/4962307-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="574" height="159"></div><h2>WINNIPEG JETS</h2>WINNIPEG&mdash;So quietly, he goes about his business, bashfully bashing opponents who rarely stop to give the rookie a word or a glance that could cause him to lose his cool.Maybe he&rsquo;s a babe by National Hockey League standards, but the only soother Dave Ellett needs is the sound of his teammates applauding each other after another win.Not even the cooking of his roommateteammate Jim Kyte can upset the balance of this young defenseman who excites the Winnipeg Jets.&ldquo;He is beyond my wildest dreams,&rdquo; said Barry Long, his coach, and one who has come to expect to suffer through the incubation of first-year defensemen.After all, the Chicago Black Hawks were kind enough to suffer through with him.&ldquo;This guy is an absolute bluechipper,&rdquo; continued Long. &ldquo;Rookie defensemen never adjust easily to the NHL. But he has blended in beautifully.&rdquo;Though large, and incredibly useful, he is less than conspicuous on the ice. Like a kid in class who never says a thing but absorbs everything, Ellett seems to be solidly entrenching himself as one of Winnipeg&rsquo;s regulars.&ldquo;Watching him from my vantage point, he is starting to get involved in the play deep in the other end, much like Paul Coffey does,&rdquo; says goaltender Brian Hayward, the Jets&rsquo; 16-game winner in goal. &ldquo;You can tell he is starting to feel comfortable in the NHL.&rdquo;Ellett agrees now that a nervewracking slump has ended. The 20-year-old product of the Ottawa minor hockey system believes his team has turned an important comer.&ldquo;The team you saw against Philadelphia was the real Winnipeg Jets,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our best game is dumping the puck into our opponent&rsquo;s zone, or checking hard, lots of pressure, and our goaltenders making saves when they are needed more.&rdquo;Recently, during a 6-2 win over the Flyers, Ellett felt vindicated by Hayward when, with only a few seconds left in the second period, Ilkka Sinisalo suddenly burst around him, only to be beaten by Hayward.&ldquo;Dave had just stepped on the ice, and maybe he was a little flat-footed,&rdquo; said Long, rushing to the defense of the big rookie. &ldquo;Whatever the case, he wasn&rsquo;t quite ready. Not as ready as he will be the next time.&rdquo;Lately, Ellett has picked up points with regularity. In a two-game stretch, he scored two goals and four assists. Four of his eight goals were scored in a sevengame stretch.As a youngster, Ellett lived in five different cities&mdash;Cleveland, Rochester, Seattle, Salt Lake and Houston. But Ottawa was home. His father, Bob, now the coach of Ottawa 67s of the Ontario Hockev League, spent 15 years in the minor leagues of hockey as a left winger.He never played a game in the NHL. His son, on the other hand, may never play a game in the minors.&ldquo;Yes, it&rsquo;s a situation that is different,&rdquo; said Dave Ellett. &ldquo;When dad was a pro, there were only six teams in the NHL, and jobs for only 24 left wingers. Today there are 21 teams and jobs for 84 of them.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;&rdquo;Three is a treat,&rdquo; said coach Barry Long when the Jets were informed that center Dale Hawerchuk, right winger Paul MacLean, and defenseman Randy Carlyle had been named to the Campbell Conference&rsquo;s second team for the 37th annual All-Star game. On only one other occasion have the Jets had a player voted to the midseason all-star team. Defenseman Dave Babych was chosen in 1983&hellip;The Jets have been on a tear lately, winning five games and tying another in a seven-game stretch&hellip;Goaltender Marc Behrend has been called up from Sherbrooke&hellip;The Jets are now carrying three netminders with Brian Hayward and Mark Holden already on the roster. &#9632;

f0017-01

Jets Excited About ‘Baby’ Blue-Chipper

<div class="byline">BY RON COBB</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-01949/4962400-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="577" height="160"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS BLUES</h2>ST. LOUIS&mdash;The Blues have managed to avoid the injury epidemic that has crippled so many National Hockey League teams, yet they recently suffered their first major casualty of the season.Left winger Kevin LaVallee is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery on Jan. 25. He suffered ligament damage a week earlier when he was checked by defenseman Robert Picard in a game at Winnipeg. With 15 goals and 17 assists, LaVallee was having his best season since 1981-82, when he scored 32 goals for Calgary.LaVallee had been playing on a line with center Bernie Federko and right winger Joe Mullen, but with the Blues not blessed with abundance of depth, coach Jacques Demers had trouble deciding upon a replacement. At first, he tried right winger Mark Reeds, then center Doug Wickenheiser and finally left winger Jorgen Pettersson.On Jan. 29, when the Blues fell behind Winnipeg 4-0 early in the second period, Demers took drastic measures, double shifting left winger Brian Sutter with Federko and Mullen as well as his regular linemates, Doug Gilmour and Greg Paslawski. Sutter responded with two goals and two assists as the Blues rallied for a 6-6 tie.Earlier that day, the Blues sent center Alain Lemieux to Quebec for left winger Luc Dufour, and Demers announced immediately that Dufour would fill the void on the Federko line.&ldquo;He&rsquo;ll do the same thing that we did with Kevin LaVallee and Dave Barr,&rdquo; Demers said. &ldquo;When they come in, they get an opportunity.&ldquo;This gives Bernie a strong guy in the comers. He adds muscle up front, which is what we needed. I don&rsquo;t know how talented he is, but he has desire.&rdquo;Dufour will fit in with the Blues as a hard worker, although he hasn&rsquo;t been much of a scorer. He had two goals and three assists in 30 games with the Nordiques.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s not fancy,&rdquo; said Ron Caron, the Blues&rsquo; director of hockey operations. &ldquo;Just an average skater, but a good shooter, and he jams the front of the net. He&rsquo;ll go toe-to-toe with anybody. He&rsquo;s a grinder and a better checker than a scorer.&rdquo;Dufour, who will turn 22 on Feb. 13, had a difficult time cracking the Nordi-ques&rsquo; lineup, in part because of their strength at left wing with Michel Goulet, Anton Stastny, Alain Cote and Brent Ashton.&ldquo;I have to work hard,&rdquo; said Dufour, who started his NHL career with the Boston Bruins. &ldquo;And play my style&mdash;fight once in a while, play rough, be strong in the comers and work for the puck.&rdquo;Lemieux, 23, had been hoping to be traded because of a lack of ice time. In 19 games, he had four goals and two assists. He had been up and down between the Blues and the minor leagues over the last three seasons.BLUENOTES&mdash;Brian Sutter became the Blues&rsquo; career leader in powerplay goals with his 87th, surpassing Garry Unger&hellip;Since Dec. 14, the Blues have slipped from sixth to 16th in the NHL in penalty killing and from seventh to 17th on the power play. &#9632;

f0018-01

Dufour Helps Blues In LaVallee’s Absence

<div class="byline">Al Strachan</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-04350/4962431-1-eng-US/f0018-042.jpg" title="f0018-04" width="396" height="457"></div>ANYONE WHO HAS seen a few National Hockey League games knows tht a referee can have a bad night. But to say that the referees are mining hockey is a ludicrous statement that hardly warrants a response.Yet when a respected hockey writer such as Stan Fischler says that in a national magazine (Inside Sports, February 1985), it&rsquo;s hard to ignore.How bad a piece is it? If Fischler did his job as well.as the referees did theirs, he couldn&rsquo;t have written that article, says one NHL official.In the opening paragraph, Fischler asks why hockey officiating is &ldquo;the worst of all big-league sports.&rdquo; In debating circles, that&rsquo;s known as begging the question.Has Fischler never seen a National Football League game? In that league, games are routinely decided on the whim of an official who throws the flag for a pass interference infraction that can&rsquo;t be found on any of four replays. And the NFL&rsquo;s drive-stopping holding calls are a travesty. What about catches in the end zone that aren&rsquo;t called touchdowns?What about basketball? Here&rsquo;s a good trivia question for you: How many steps does it take to get called for travelling in the National Basketball Association? If you find out, let me know. Judging by what I&rsquo;ve seen, guesses between seven and 12 would be reasonable. And if the NBA&rsquo;s officiating is so good, why do so many coaches earn technical fouls?If Fischler thinks baseball&rsquo;s umpires are beyond criticism, he certainly hasn&rsquo;t talked to any baseball managers lately. They&rsquo;re extremely concerned about a major de terioration in the calibre of umpiring.But let&rsquo;s get to a few of Fischler&rsquo;s specific charges based on what he calls &ldquo;an information survey.&rdquo; What&rsquo;s an information survey anyway? Who conducted it? Who was polled? What kind of information was sought? Probably, an information survey is simply a list of Fischler&rsquo;s pet peeves.He says &ldquo;referees call the game one way in the first period, and another way in the third period.&rdquo; Sure they do if it&rsquo;s aclose game. But so what? They call a tight game in the early going to let the players know they can&rsquo;t get away with cheap shots, then, in the third period with the game on the line, they make sure it&rsquo;s a clear infraction before I they call it. What&rsquo;s wrong with that? Fans I talk to (does that constitute an information survey?) would rather have | it that way than to have their team lose on a power-play goal as the result of a marginal penalty.Fischler says &ldquo;referees frequently miss the original foul but call the retaliatory foul.&rdquo; Yep. But that happens in every league. And it has happened in the NHL since I King Clancy was a ref, so if the officials are ruining the I league, they&rsquo;re taking a long time to do it.Fischler says &ldquo;the refs play favorites, favoring certain superstars, especially Wayne Gretzky.&rdquo; Probably. If someone takes a cheap shot at a goon, chances are good the goon deserved it. If someone takes a cheap shot at Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne or a host of other superstars, send the guy off. People pay to watch the stars play hockey, not to be carried off on a stretcher.Fischler says &ldquo;the referees have become too self-important.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s doubtful. He&rsquo;s probably just miffed because the backup referees refused to appear on his TV show during last year&rsquo;s playoffs.Fischler says &ldquo;the refs refuse to call hooking and interference consistently.&rdquo; I should hope so. Otherwise, the teams would be playing three aside all night. And that&rsquo;s the case at any level of hockey anywhere in the world, not just in the NHL.Fischler says &ldquo;the NHL has discriminated against American-born referees.&rdquo; That&rsquo;s a silly charge and one which Fischler doesn&rsquo;t substantiate, probably because he can&rsquo;t.Fischler says &ldquo;when refs miss the obvious calls, they even it up with questionable calls.&rdquo; That depends on the referee. But even so, the same thing happens in other sports. If the officials are ruining hockey by such a tactic, then other sports are being ruined by officials as well.Fischler says that by the time a referee gains sufficient experience, he&rsquo;s too old to keep up with the play. Part of the experience is knowing how to compensate for a lack of speed. And NHL officials have a mandatory retirement age of 45.Fischler&rsquo;s final point is that referees carry grudges. To support that, he quotes one coach and refers to his battle with one referee. One instance doesn&rsquo;t prove a point, especially when one of the two parties involved denies the charge.But there are other problems with Fischler&rsquo;s story. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s cut-and-paste journalism,&rdquo; says an NHL official. &ldquo;He quotes Cliff Fletcher and Mike Milbury and both of them insist they haven&rsquo;t spoken to Fischler about this.&rdquo;Milbury&rsquo;s quotes, in fact, refer to referee Wally Harris who left the NHL two years ago.And one wonders about the logic of this paragraph: &ldquo;Furthermore, today the NHL ices more than 400 players and 13 (at last count) zebras. This hardly adds up to the same brand of intimacy that was enjoyed in the NHL when three or four referees had the run of only 90 players in the six team league&hellip;&rdquo;It hardly adds up to common sense either. In the six-team league, the maximum number of games on any given night was three. So there were three or four referees. Now, the maximum number of games on any night is 10 and there are 13 referees. How does that prove the statement that the officials are ruining hockey?Fischler offers precious little substantiation for his points and the closest he comes to offering a solution is to suggest the league put more referees on the ice. But if the referees are as inconsistent and unfair as he says, what&rsquo;s the point of that?There are none. It makes no sense. Just like Fischler&rsquo;s article. &#9632;

f0018-04

It’s Ludicrous To Suggest Refs Are Ruining Hockey

<div class="byline">BY VARTAN KUPELIAN</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-02716/4962462-1-eng-US/f0018-022.jpg" title="f0018-02" width="575" height="170"></div><h2>DETROIT RED WINGS</h2>DETROIT&mdash;Nobody has to tell Jimmy Devellano he&rsquo;s having a rough year. He knows it only too well.In his first two years as Red Wing general manager, Devellano made more good moves than bad. He drafted Steve Yzerman, acquired Dwight Foster for loose change, and made trades that landed Ron Duguay and Ivan Boldirev. All became contributors to the Wings march to the playoffs in 1983-84.But unless there&rsquo;s a sudden change in the final 30 games of the National Hockey League season, the Wings will fall far short of their 31-victory total of last year. They had 15 through 51 games, and needed to play at better than a. 500 pace to equal last year&rsquo;s record.Still, the foremost objective&mdash;a second consecutive playoff spot&mdash;is within reach as the Wings are holding tightly to their lead over Toronto in the Norris Division. That reduces some of the pressure but not all of it. For the rebuilding Red Wings, the name of the game is to continue to show improvement and so far this season they&rsquo;ve done it backwards.That&rsquo;s made this an extremely difficult season for Devellano, who takes losing so personally and suffers so much with every defeat.Devellano is the first to acknowledge that none of his off-season moves has produced results. The Tiger Williams and Darryl Sittier trades have proved fruitless; the importation of Czechs Frank Cemik and Milan Chalupa has not provided the depth it was supposed to; and No. 1 draft pick Shawn Burr wasn&rsquo;t ready to step in and contribute as Steve Yzerman did a year ago.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s 0-for-5&hellip;or whatever.&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s shocking. I can&rsquo;t deny nothing has worked. You&rsquo;d think I&rsquo;d luck out on one of &lsquo;em.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve found it distressful. I&rsquo;m the guy charged with the reponsibility of putting a hockey club on the ice. I&rsquo;ve made moves to shore things up and nothing has worked.&ldquo;The first year I paid a buck and got Dwight Foster (from New Jersey). And I was able to get Ivan Boldirev for Mark Kirton. Last year Steve Yzerman and Ron Duguay stepped in. In our situation, you like to get one or two of these every year to help you make some progress. That hasn&rsquo;t happened this year.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s gotten so bad that Devellano said he&rsquo;s hearing rumors that his job might be in jeopardy.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve gotten three calls from people saying they&rsquo;ve heard a rumor and asking if I was in trouble,&rdquo; Devellano said. &ldquo;I told them they&rsquo;d better call (Red Wing owner) Mike Hitch. He makes those decisions.&rdquo;Deveilano said he&rsquo;s talked to Hitch about the matter.&ldquo;He just laughed,&rdquo; Jimmy D. said.But the Wings&rsquo; plight is no laughing matter, and nobody knows it better than Deveilano.The Wings got a lift from a good three-game road trip, earning three of a possible six points with a victory on Long Island and a tie in Minnesota to go along with the lone defeat at Madison Square Garden, and followed up with their first home victory in eight games, a 4-3 decision over the tough Washington Capitals. The loss snapped a seven-game Washington winning streak.&ldquo;This week has helped,&rdquo; Deveilano said even before the Wings returned home to face the Caps. &ldquo;It has helped to sort of lift a dark cloud. I detect a pretty decent feeling around. Nobody is too down. I just hope something good happens.&rdquo;He had a candidate, too.&ldquo;Maybe the addition of the kids, Claude Loiselle and Gerard Gallant, and a healthy Larry Trader will work out for us,&rdquo; he said.Loiselle and Gallant sparkled in their first week since being called up from Adirondack of the American Hockey League. Trader, out for two months after undergoing knee surgery, is expected back in mid-February. &#9632;

f0018-02

Devellano Feels Most Frustration

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-01887/4962493-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="588" height="175"></div><h2>LOS ANGELES KINGS</h2>LOS ANGELES&mdash;&rdquo;Streakbusters&rdquo; was quite a hit in Hollywood, even though it was more than 11 years in the making.First, on Jan. 23, the Kings ended a 21-game Forum winless streak at the hands of Philadelphia with a 6-3 victory, their first over the Flyers at home since Oct. 20, 1973.Rogie Vachon recorded the 3-0 shutout then, and a mere 11 years, three months and three days later he watched from his general manager&rsquo;s seat in the press box.Then it was on to the banks of the Mississippi, where, after extending their winless streak to 10 in a row with a 6-3 loss, the Kings put an end to it on Jan. 26 with a 7-3 victory.That string dated back to Nov. 14, 1978&mdash;a span of six years, two months and 12 days.Naturally, the streaking Marcel Dionne was the biggest &ldquo;Streakbuster&rdquo; of them all, contributing a goal and three assists in both games.&ldquo;I wonder if other teams have been dominated like this,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Any-way, it&rsquo;s nice to have finally gotten these two out of the way.&rdquo;Oh, but there are plenty more, though they&rsquo;ll have to wait until next year. The Kings haven&rsquo;t won in Boston since Jan. 24, 1981 (0-6-1), in Quebec (0-4) and in Toronto (0-2-1) before ending a 0-6-1 string against the Islanders anywhere.&ldquo;It seems like the Kings have more of these kinds of streaks than any-body,&rdquo; said first-year coach Pat Quinn, shaking his head.The Kings couldn&rsquo;t have picked a better time to beat the Flyers. They had blown a 7-2 second-period lead in Edmonton on the way to an incredible 8-7 loss only 48 hours before and were in need of a lift.The Kings nursed a 4-3 lead into the third period, then wrapped things up with a pair of goals from rookie defenseman Garry Galley, who snapped an 18-game goalless streak of his own.Then, as &ldquo;It&rsquo;s Finally Over&rdquo; flashed on the scoreboard, the crowd of 11,381 gave the Kings a rousing standing ovation. Dionne, named the first star of the game, egged the fans on with two curtain calls, pumping his arms frantically as he skated in circles.The win also was Quinn&rsquo;s first in two attempts against his former employers, though he later tried to downplay the importance of it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be a liar if I said it wasn&rsquo;t nice,&rdquo; Quinn said, &ldquo;but there isn&rsquo;t great significance to it.&rdquo;Dionne, however, was more excited.&ldquo;I remember driving to the Forum and hearing somebody on the radio mention we hadn&rsquo;t beat them in 11 years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We just had to put a stop to this nonsense.&rdquo;None of the Kings were around for the entire Philadelphia story, but rookies such as Galley and winning goaltender Darren Eliot knew something was up after walking into the dressing room before the game.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t even know about it,&rdquo; said Galley, who was a mere lad of 10 the last time the Kings had beaten their tormentors at home. &ldquo;Steve Shutt, he was shocked. He couldn&rsquo;t believe it. The same with Brian Engblom.&rdquo;Eliot, who turned aside 19 shots&rsquo;, had heard &ldquo;some of the older guys talking about it. Marcel was really excited. But I couldn&rsquo;t really get a feel for it.&ldquo;It was kind of like my first year in college (Cornell), when the coach would come in and say, &lsquo;Hey, we haven&rsquo;t beat them in so many years.&rsquo; To me it was, well, &lsquo;Whoopee. But by the end of my career I was very aware of all our big rivals, like Harvard.&ldquo;So to me,&rdquo; Eliot said, &ldquo;the big thing was coming back for that disaster in Edmonton. Sometimes you have to learn a painful lesson before you learn how to win as a team, and we certainly learned a painful one.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-01

Kings Beat Flyers To End 11-Year Drought

<div class="byline">BY CHUCK MOODY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-02666/4962524-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="595" height="173"></div><h2>PITTSBURGH PENGUINS</h2>PITTSBURGH&mdash;There are two rookie centers with the initials M.L. who came to the Pittsburgh Penguins with outstanding offensive statistics, but that&rsquo;s where the similarities end.Mario Lemieux was the first pick in June&rsquo;s National Hockey League entry draft after scoring 133 goals and 149 assists last season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Lemieux also is the tallest player on the Penguin roster at 6-foot-4.Lamoureux, 5-foot-6, is the shortest player on the team, but don&rsquo;t mistake lack of size for lack of talent. Two years ago with the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American Hockey League he set an AHL record for most goals in a season (57) and added 50 assists.Lamoureux made the Penguins in training camp last season, but was sent back to Baltimore after scoring only one goal and one assist in eight games. He finished the season with the Skipjacks and registered 30 goals and 38 assists in 68 games.Last season, Lamoureux was expected to score goals for the Penguins, but this season he is the team&rsquo;s checking center and expected to prevent the other team from putting the puck in the net. It is quite a role reversal for the 22-year-old Ottawa native.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a different role, but if I want to stay in the NHL I&rsquo;m going to have to do my job out there and come up and play the type of role they want me to play,&rdquo; Lamoureux said. &ldquo;If that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve got to do to stay in the NHL, then I&rsquo;m going to do it. I&rsquo;ll be more than happy to.&ldquo;I go out there and try and do my job&mdash;try not to get scored on. And I try to make things happen, cause trouble if I have to, go out there and play the man all the time. If I score, great; if I don&rsquo;t, I&rsquo;m not going to worry about it. But what I&rsquo;m most concerned about when I&rsquo;m out there is not getting scored against.&rdquo;Lamoureux admits he took things for granted last season following his outstanding year in the AHL.&ldquo;It helped me out a lot the way I realized things happened this year,&rdquo; Lamoureux said about getting sent down. &ldquo;I came into camp a lot smarter. I didn&rsquo;t rely on my year before because I didn&rsquo;t have that great of a season last year. I had to go out and prove myself all over again, and I knew it wasn&rsquo;t going to be easy.&ldquo;I guess I had such a good year as a rookie in the American League that I figured things would just come, that I would just have to lace them up and things would come. I learned pretty quickly that things don&rsquo;t work that way at all. Maybe it was the best thing for me.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m working pretty hard here. I&rsquo;m trying my best. I&rsquo;m going to do whatever they want me to do, and I think I&rsquo;ve been fairly successful at it.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0019-02

Tiny Penguin Stands Tall In Other Ways

<div class="byline">BY JOHN GILBERT</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-01747/4962562-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="569" height="155"></div><h2>MINNESOTA NORTH STARS</h2>BLOOMINGTON&mdash;Brent Ashton and Mark Napier must be smiling a lot these days.Both have been reborn and are flexing their wings of hockey potential since leaving the Minnesota North Stars.North Star general manager Lou Nan-ne explained it all a couple of weeks ago. He said he attributes success to &ldquo;core players,&rdquo; the stars of each team.It would appear that some GMs have a different theory on &ldquo;core players.&rdquo; If you grant that all teams have from two to five standout players, and about as many aspiring new prospects, maybe true success depends on a nucleus of solid, middle-of-the-road players.Those are the players not always in the headlines, the ones preventing goals or chipping in opportunistic ones when the big names aren&rsquo;t producing. If those hard-core players are truly the &ldquo;core&rdquo; of a team, then maybe it is their character, heart and stability that decide the ultimate success of a team.Examine, for a moment, the reputation for character and willingness&mdash;on and off the ice&mdash;of Greg Smith, Mike Eaves, Mark Johnson, Al MacAdam, Craig Levie, Brent Ashton and Mark Napier, to name just seven. A team could be pretty impressive if it had a middle-ground nucleus of that group.All of them were North Stars. All were dealt away.Ashton and Napier were the most recent. Napier went to Edmonton for Gord Sherven and Terry Martin. Sherven is a young, hustling prospect who will fill a role in the fourth line, something the Stars decided Napier wouldn&rsquo;t do.Napier is a swift, classy player who has always had a great scoring touch. He immediately scored a couple of goals in Edmonton, where it must be heavenly for Napier to have his speed and talent exploited, instead of his lack of ruggedness pointed out.When Edmonton pulled out a stunning victory with a goal late in the game and another with two seconds left, Napier had assists on both of them. Back at the Met Center, the Stars&rsquo; brass continue to moan about a lack of scoring.But Ashton&rsquo;s case is even more intriguing. The North Stars were convinced Ashton was a great guy in the comers, as well as the dressing room. But he had cement hands, they said. He couldn&rsquo;t handle the puck near the net and could never score.His four goals were offered as proof, although they were more proof of his lack of regular status and of being forced into a checking role, even though he accepted that willingly.On a night when the Stars lost 4-1 to Philadelphia at home, and continued to bemoan their lack of scoring, Quebec beat Boston 4-3. Brent Ashton scored two goals and two assists. Both goals and one assist came on the power play.Apparently his hands weren&rsquo;t good enough to play on a North Star team that can&rsquo;t score, but the same hands are good enough to play on a power play for a team loaded with Stastnys and Goulets.Interestingly enough, he was obtained as a throw-in in the Brad Maxwell-for-Tony McKegney trade, in which Bo Berglund also came to the Stars.As a refugee from fourth-line and press-box duty in Minnesota, Ashton&rsquo;s biggest test came when the Stars, fresh from their fifth victory of the season against lowly Toronto, went to Quebec.Quebec won 5-1. Ashton scored three goals, including a shorthanded tally, a tip-in of a Maxwell shot, and a shot from the slot off Peter Stastny&rsquo;s setup. He had a total of eight shots in the game, including a breakaway that he failed to score on. Bad hands, you know.Since the Dec. 14 trade, McKegney scored 11 goals and has often been the Stars&rsquo; best forward. But he also had 12 goals before leaving Quebec, and was never accused of being a non-scorer. He was also named as the Stars&rsquo; only all-star representative.STAR DUST&mdash;Craig Hartsburg reinjured his hip, where a cracked femur had sidelined him most of the season. He is out indefinitely.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-02505/4962555-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="1199" height="1334"></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

Ex-North Stars Flex Their Scoring Muscles

Stephen Kinch is in his second year with the SEDMHA Midget A Jets of the Central Minor Hockey Federation in Halifax, N.S.Aside from being the captain of his team, which is in first place, Stephen is the league&rsquo;s top scorer, both in points and goals, averaging more than two points per game and more than a goal a game.John Neville, coach of the Jets, says Stephen is the hardest working player on the team and a tremendous leader. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s the first one on the ice at practice,&rdquo; says Neville, &ldquo;and the last one off;&rdquo;Stephen&rsquo;s short-term goal is to play major junior hockey in Ontario next season and, as for the long-term, he would like one day to play in the National Hockey League.After his first 27 games this season, Stephen had 31 goals and 29 assists, including a team-high four game-winning goals. Neville also says Stephen is the most &ldquo;coachable&rdquo; player he&rsquo;s had in 12 years of coaching minor hockey. &ldquo;If I sound exceedingly complimentary of Stephen,&rdquo; Neville says, &ldquo;it is because he is indeed a rare player with exceptional overall skills and devotion. He is the ideal minor hockey player.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-03352/4962593-1-eng-US/f0020-032.jpg" title="f0020-03" width="557" height="829"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stephen Kinch</figcaption></div><h2>JOFA Entries</h2>You can submit a player for consideration for the JOFA Minor Player Showcase. Just enclose a photograph, along with all the pertinent information and mail to: JOFA SHOWCASE, 85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100, Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2. &#9632;

f0020-03

JOFA

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-04236/4962624-1-eng-US/f0020-042.jpg" title="f0020-04" width="730" height="1039"><figcaption class="caption-body">North Star Brian Bellows didn&rsquo;t start playing hockey until he was nine.</figcaption></div>When it comes to discussing his career in hockey, Minnesota North Stars&rsquo; talented right winger Brian Bellows admits he was a late starter.Bellows, the second player taken in the 1982 draft, has made rapid strides in his hockey ability when you consider he never played the sport until he was nine years old.But by the time he was 10. Bellows was playing for the St. Catharines, Ont., house league champs, the Rockets.&ldquo;My parents never pushed me into hockey,&rdquo; said Bellows, who captained his Kitchener Ranger team to the Canadian Major Junior Hockey Memorial Cup in &lsquo;82. &ldquo;They just wanted me to enjoy the game.&rdquo;Although his own parents never hampered his minor hockey career, Bellows believes that some parents can be a real detriment to minor hockey.&ldquo;Hockey is complicated in Ontario because of the parents sometimes,&rdquo; said Bellows. &ldquo;Some can be a real drawback to their kids.&rdquo;Bellows, who has had several highlights in his young hockey career, said one of his biggest moments in his minor hockey days came at the age of 14 when his team played in the finals of the Loblaws Cup (all-Ontario bantam championship).&ldquo;We lost,&rdquo; he added with a grin.<blockquote class="pullQuote">&lsquo;Hockey is complicated in Ontario because of the parents sometimes. Some can be a real drawback to their kids.&rsquo;</blockquote>Although Bellows is an above-average player who is regarded as one of the leaders on the North Stars, he feels he was barely an average performer when he played house-league hockey.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I started to play well until I was 15, in junior,&rdquo; said Bellows, who was one of the younger players on the gold-medal winning Canadian team in the Canada Cup in September. &ldquo;Junior B was my biggest challenge. Here you were playing guys up to 21 years old. But my coach, Bob Bishop, saw something in me and it worked out really well.&rdquo;Bellows only played in junior B for one year, jumping to the Rangers at the age of sixteen, and played there for two seasons. By the age of 18, Bellows had graduated to the National Hockey League.&ldquo;I enjoy being in the NHL,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The season&rsquo;s long, but it&rsquo;s a great life. It&rsquo;s an opportunity to do a lot of things. I&rsquo;ll play as long as I can, I guess anyone would. My biggest thrill, though, was to be able to send my father on a fishing trip to northern Quebec.&rdquo;Bellows had some advice for youngsters who are leaning toward a career in the pros.&ldquo;Just take it (hockey) as it comes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If it&rsquo;s meant to be, you&rsquo;ll end up there.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0020-04

Minor Hockey Flashback: Brian Bellows

<div class="byline">BY TONY GALLAGHER</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-01547/4962655-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="575" height="162"></div><h2>VANCOUVER CANUCKS</h2>VANCOUVER&mdash;Richard Brodeur is learning there is a National Hockey League record that will never be broken.When you consider goalie Glenn Hall played in 552 consecutive games for Chicago, Brodeur&rsquo;s paltry 18 consecutive starts through Jan. 30 hardly sends one into palpitations.Based on the thinking of the &lsquo;80s. it amounts to overwork. But the native of the Montreal suburb of Longueuil much prefers the work to rattling around the buses in Fredericton, where he was banished earlier this season by general manager Harry Neale and Bill LaForge, then coach of the team.Ever since his return Dec. 3, he&rsquo;s been in goal all but two games, when a sore neck forced the Canucks to start John Garrett, something they seem extremely reluctant to do. He&rsquo;s now up to 18 in a row, and with the return of Frank Caprice still two to three weeks away, Brodeur will run his string past 20&mdash;barring injury.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind the work, that&rsquo;s what I get paid for,&rdquo; says the 32-year-old who was cast as scapegoat for the early folly of the Canucks and sent to the American League in disgrace. &ldquo;The most important thing for me is to work hard in practice but not for such a long time. Instead of going for an hour and a half, it&rsquo;s better for me to go an hour and then get off the ice. The main thing when you&rsquo;re plauying a lot of games is to stay mentally sharp.&rdquo;Brodeurhas been exceptional since his return, which started with a run of about six games when he was the King Richard of old. He was fabulous in four consecutive games on one road trip with wins in Quebec and Montreal, then a 2-1 overtime loss in Boston and a 2-2 tie in Buffalo. But a man can only catch bullets in his teeth so long, and his performance fell back to merely good.&ldquo;They ask me to play, so I play,&rdquo; says Brodeur, who is now feeling like he&rsquo;s earning his estimated annual salary of $300,000. &ldquo;I play my best when I play a lot. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s possible nowadays for a goaltender to play the full 80 games, but if they want me to take a crack at it I will.&rdquo;Brodeur felt he could never again play for LaForge when he was sent out.&ldquo;He would tell me things like, &lsquo;You lifted your stick on that one&rsquo; or that I did this or that wrong on a particular goal,&rdquo; said Brodeur. &ldquo;This was pretty tough to take from a guy who had never played goal.&rdquo;When he was in the AHL, the Canucks went with Caprice who played well until he tore his hamstring muscle on Dec. 1. He hasn&rsquo;t been back since.&ldquo;My flexibility still isn&rsquo;t there,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t bend my knee all the way and I&rsquo;ve been wearing a strap so I won&rsquo;t bend it too far. It will take another couple of weeks to extend the leg fully, and then maybe another week or two before I can get my sharpness back.&rdquo;Garrett, meanwhile, is back in his retirement pose, virtually the same one Neale and LaForge put him in earlier this season when they decided to go with two goaltenders.&ldquo;I would probably feel differently if Richard was playing ordinary,&rdquo; says Garrett, &ldquo;but I can&rsquo;t get upset about not playing when the guy is playing so well. There&rsquo;s no way you can take a guy out if he&rsquo;s doing the job.&rdquo;The sad part of the situation is that, at this point, it doesn&rsquo;t really matter whether or not Bobo the Clown plays goal. Winning at this stage of the season may salvage pride, but it does nothing for Vancouver&rsquo;s drafting position, which presently stands at second overall.NOTES&mdash;The Canucks called up winger Mike Stevens from Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League under emergency conditions with nuisance injuries to Thomas Gradin. Moe Lemay, and J.J. Daigneault. Stevens, the brother of Washington Capitals&rsquo; Scott Stevens, has been playing with a knee that is only 75 per cent healthy, after arthroscopic surgery. The Canucks were planning on sending him back with the return of the others, but have decided to keep him in Vancouver to further rehabilitate the knee. &#9632;

f0021-01

Brodeur Earning Keep For Lowly Canucks

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-01631/4962686-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="577" height="167"></div><h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYERS</h2>PHILADELPHIA&mdash;In the reversal of one of their most delicate operations, the Flyers have pried apart the two twins they worked so hard to get together&mdash;Rich and Ron Sutter.The Flyers broke up the Sutter twins when they decided to try and snap Rich out of a season-and-a-half slump by sending him down to their American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears. Ironically, the Flyers had been able to get the twins together because Rich was annoyed at the Pittsburgh Penguins for sending him to the American League early in the 1983-84 season.At the time, the Flyers sent Ron Flockhart, Mark Taylor and Andy Brickley to Pittsburgh in order to get Rich and reunite him with his twin brother Ron, whom the Flyers had selected in the first round of the 1982 entry draft.Although he had a fairly successful first half-season, Rich struggled through the second half of last season and had been used only sparingly by the Flyers this season. When he was sent down, he had scored only three goals and seven assists, and had been held goalless in his past 11 appearances.&ldquo;In a way, I felt it was coming,&rdquo; Rich said. &ldquo;It seemed like nothing had gone right from the beginning of the season.&rdquo;Rich missed most of training camp after abdominal surgery, and then some of the early-season with a bruised shoulder.&ldquo;I guess this is the next step,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still confident I can make it back soon, maybe within two weeks.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d be worried if I didn&rsquo;t think I could ever be an NHL player, but I know I can. I know I can help the Philadelphia Flyers, and before I&rsquo;m through playing, I&rsquo;ll do it.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still trying to look at this as the best thing for everybody. I need to play more, and I&rsquo;ll get that chance in Hershey. When I was sent down last year (by Pittsburgh), I knew I&rsquo;d never be backup with them. This time the Flyers are not sending me down as punishment. I&rsquo;m going down there to improve.&rdquo;When the Flyers traded for Rich they thought the combination of the twins would improve each other&rsquo;s performance. However, the down side of that arrangement is that they have to worry that Rich&rsquo;s struggling might affect Ron, who has had an up and down year at center.&ldquo;I think he (Ron) took it worse than me,&rdquo; said Rich. &ldquo;I just told him to keep his chin up, I&rsquo;ll be back soon.&rdquo;Earlier in the season, Flyer general manager Bob Clarke had warned the twins that each one had his own responsibility to the club.&ldquo;They&rsquo;ve got to learn,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;that they can&rsquo;t brood about one another. If Rich is struggling, it can&rsquo;t affect Ron, and vice-versa.&rdquo;Just two days before the demotion, Flyer coach Mike Keenan had been questioned about Sutter&rsquo;s limited use and obvious struggle, and he reminded everybody that Rich was not the only Sutter to start slowly.&ldquo;The older brothers spent some time in the minor leagues,&rdquo; said Keenan. &ldquo;They needed time to develop. I think what you&rsquo;re seeing now is Rich serving some apprentice time until he becomes a regular player.&ldquo;One thing I like is his attitude. He hasn&rsquo;t been whining, and he&rsquo;s constantly coming in to me for feedback.&rdquo;But for now, there are only five Sutter brothers in the NHL.NOTES&mdash;The Flyers were 1-3-0 during Brian Propp&rsquo;s four-game suspension for slashing. After losing road games in Los Angeles and Winnipeg, they defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 at the Spectrum and then lost 6-3 to the Buffalo Sabres at the Spectrum. Their season record against the Sabres was an even 1-11&hellip;In addition to being disappointed about the suspension, Propp was also disappointed about the results of the AllStar voting in which he finished a distant third in left wing balloting, well behind John Tonelli, Michel Goulet and Mats Naslund. &ldquo;Either I&rsquo;m not having as good a season as I think,&rdquo; said Propp, &ldquo;or somebody isn&rsquo;t noticing.&rdquo;&hellip;Just when it looked as if the Flyers would finally have an injury-free roster with the return of Mark Howe from a rib injury, the club was again hampered when defenseman Brad McCrimmon suffered a broken hand during the warm up before the Buffalo game and is expected to miss two weeks&hellip;Goalie Bob Froese was sent to Hershey for two weeks in order to try and regain game sharpness. He has not played since Dec. 8 because of strained ligaments in his left knee. &#9632;

f0022-01

Flyers Send Rich Sutter Down To Minors

<div class="byline">BY BOB DONNELLY</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-01569/4962717-1-eng-US/f0023-012.jpg" title="f0023-01" width="578" height="160"></div><h2>QUEBEC NORDIQUES</h2>QUEBEC CITY&mdash;The Quebec Nordiques had a record of 11-4-2 from late December through late January, making use of the talents of goalies Dan Bouchard, rookie Mario Gosselin and newcomer Richard Sevigny, and car-rying the three goaltenders has not created the expected headaches for coach Michel Bergeron.&ldquo;I feel as if I have three number one goaltenders on my team,&rdquo; said Bergeron. &ldquo;None of them is a substitute who must fill in now and then to give the number one guy a rest. They share the work equally and having three netminders allows me to do things I could not do if we had only two with the team.&rdquo;What Bergeron is referring to is giving someone the extra rest he might need, or having someone around for emergency purposes. This happened recently when Bouchard was supposed to start a game at the Colisee but came up with stomach flu during the team warmup. Gosselin played and Sevigny was the substitute. In that same week the Nordiques were playing the Canadiens and Sabres back-to-back. Sevigny beat his former team at the Forum with Bouchard as the sub. Gosselin was back home resting, and the following night Quebec beat Buffalo, using him in goal to move into second place in the Adams Division.Bouchard has nothing but praise for the three-man system.&ldquo;The pressure is spread out now among three of us,&rdquo; says Bouchard, who added that he has never felt so strong mentally and physically this late in the season. &ldquo;People might think we are jealous of the success of the other guy but that just isn&rsquo;t the case at all. We win when we share the work as a team. I am happy with the system and the way I am being used. I think I will be able to prolong my career even longer in the NHL playing this way.&rdquo;Gosselin says the three only want to do what&rsquo;s best for the team.&ldquo;We want to support the team as much as we can and that&rsquo;s all we care about,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter who plays better or best as long as we know we are doing what it takes to help the team keep winning.&rdquo;Gosselin, a rookie, says he appreciates the Nordiques breaking him in slowly.&ldquo;At one point I didn&rsquo;t play for two weeks but I wasn&rsquo;t worried because I know the team policy is to work the rookies in slowly,&rdquo; says Gosselin.NORDIC NOTES&mdash;The Nords sent recently-acquired winger Luc Dufour to St. Louis in exchange for Alain Lemieux. Quebec gains a little depth at center to fill in for Andre Savard, whose knee problems have taken a lot longer than expected to heal. Michel Goulet&rsquo;s nomination to the second All-Star team in the Prince of Wales Conference brought immediate praise fromn Quebec general manager Maurice Filion. &#9632;

f0023-01

Nordiques Find Rest Solves Crowd In Goal

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0023-02" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0023-02396/4962748-1-eng-US/f0023-022.jpg"></div>MISCELLANEOUSICE SKATING RINK in modern 30,000 square foot building on 3 acres, 17,000 square foot skating surface. Located in South East U.S. Josey & Company (205) 252-6754.<h2>COMPLETE HOCKEY SETS</h2>58-59 Topps (66I $180; 63-64 Topps (66) $150; 68-69 Topps (132) $85; 71-72 Topps (132) $65; 73-74 Topps (198) $50; 79-80 Topps (264) $35; 77-78 Topps (264) $25; 1978 Coke (issued in Boston) (30) $45.00; 1975 Linnett Sabres (12) $25; 79-80 Bells Sabres (9) $15; 1980 Stars Goal Magazine inserts (rare) (22) $45.00 Send to:Canada U.S. Enterprises,99 Katherine Road,Dowvnsview, Ont. M3K 1J5,Canada, (416) 6694378Send SASE for hockey list<h2>WHA BUTTON SALE</h2>1&frac14;&rdquo; of Baltimore Blades, New York Golden Blades, Alberta Oilers. Minnesota Saints, and WHA league button (Rare). All are $3.25 each or all 5 for $12.50. Also Colorado Rockies button and pennant for $4.00. Send to:Canada US Sports Enterprises,99 Katherine RoadDownsview, Ont.M3K 1J5 Canada(416) 669-4378<h2>SPORTS COLLECTORS SHOW</h2>All Star Sports presents 5 shows in 1985. First is Sunday March 3,1985 at Ramada Inn-1677 Wilson Avenue, Toronto. Prizes and guest stars to be announced. Portable reservations or info call: 416-669-4378 or write:All-Star Sports,10 Planchet-Unit 4,Concord, Ont, L4K 2C8 Canada<h2>ROSAIRE PAIEMENT A FORMER</h2>NHL Player invites you to combine sunshine vacation in Florida with playing your favorite sport: hockey, volleyball, softball; tournaments arranged. Call: (305) 565-6658 or write: Coral Plaza Motel, 2701 North Federal Highway, Ft. Lauderdale, FL., 33306.MISCELLANEOUSPUCK COLLECTORS: Put your collection on a solid oak wall plaque, holds 22 pucks $49.50; Canada Cup &lsquo;984 pucks set of 7, $18.00. Darrel Zary, P.O. Box 1286, Hum-boldt, Sask, SOK 2A0<h2>RARE WHA PUCKS</h2>Rare WHA pucks, Alberta Oilers, San Diego Mariners, New York Golden Blades, Ottawa Nationals, Cleveland Crusaders, Vancou/er Blazers, Minnesota Saints, Cincy Stingers, Indy Racers, WHA (with logo). $10.00 each or all 10 for $85.00 U.S Funds. Have 23 sets for sale. Send to:Canada US Sports Enterprises,99 Katherine RoadDownsviaw, Ont. M3K 1J5Canada (4161 669-4378Allow 2 weeks delivery VISA & Mastercard accepted.OTTAWA NATIONALS WHA SET: Never offered to the public. Rare 1972-73 (23 card) set of all the players in B/W. Have the only 500 acts. Send $8.50 for I set, $15.00 for 2 sets and 3 for $18.00 to:All Star Sports,10 Planchet Road, UnK 4,Concord, Ont., L4K 2C8(416) 669-4378&bull;Dealer inquires welcomed SASE.PUBLICATIONSQUEEN&rsquo;S COMICS ANNUAL record and trading card collectibles show Sunday, Mar. 3,1985. Lakeshore Inn, 2000 Lakeshore West, Toronto, Ont. 11: 00-6: 00 p.m. $2.50. Over 100 dealers, rare records, sports and non-sports, movie items and more. For information: Annette Lawrence, 1962 Queen St. E., Toronto, Ont. M4L 1H8 (416) 698-8757<h2>PHILADELPHIA FLYER MAGAZINE</h2>Official game publication, now available via home subscription. Send $29.95 (39.95 in Canada) for 15 issues to:Flyer Magazine,The Spectrum,Philadelphia, PA, 19106BOOKS<h2>ALL SPORTS BOOKSTORE FEATURES:</h2>The Hockey I Love $7.95; Maple Leaf Gardens 50 Year History $14.95; The Eagle {The Alan Eagleson Story I $5.95; Official NHL Record Book 1983 $3.95; Professional Hockey Handbook $2.95THE ALL SPORTS BOOKSTOREP.O. Box 266 Station W.Toronto, Ont., M6M 4Z2Receive FREE &ldquo;The Story of the NHL&rdquo; value $6.95 with any $10 order.PUBLICATIONSNY ISLANDER NEWS: 9 issues $12 ($18 in Canada). 190 Willis Ave. Mineola, NY, 11501.<h2>NEW YORK ISLANDERS SALE</h2>1978-79,79-80, 80-81, 81-82, 82-83, 83-84, 84-85 media guides @ $4.60 each, 80-81, 81-82, 84-85 yearbooks @ $5.00 each or all 10 for $40.00. 80 different Islander programs @ $3 00 each. Add. 30 postage each guide U.S. Funds.Canada U.S. Sports Enterprises99 Katherine RoadDownsview, Ont.M3K 1J5 Canada*Have large quantities of each.<h2>ATTENTION:</h2>HOCKEY SCHOOL OPERATORS A catalogue of all hockey schools, local/international, big/smalI is being prepared for nation wide distribution. Get your program listed Send a program description to:HOCKEY SCHOOLS228 High Park Ave.Toronto, Ont. M6P 2S6There is no charge for this service. Don&rsquo;t delay; send it today.COLLECTIONS<h2>RARE PENNANTS</h2>Miami Screaming Eagles and Baltimore Blades WHA pennants. We have just obtained 50 of them from a Florida dea er. We are told these were given to first year ticket holders. One never played. Miami is $25.00 and Baltimore is $15.00. Send in US Funds to:All Star Sports10 Planchet Road, Unit 4Concord, Ont.L4K 2C8(411) 669-4378EDMONTON OILERS game worn jerseys for ssle. Prices $195-S595. I403) 458-2566AHL HOCKEY CARD set of 25-84-85 Springfield Indians, An Islander&mdash;North Stars affiliate $4.00 ppd. Card Collectors Closet, Box 983, Springfield, MA, 01101.MONCTON GOLDEN FLAMES: Team Calendar $4. 00, Hockey Card Sets $5.00. Program $3.00. Address: Moncton Golden Flames Hockey Club, PO Rox 967. Moncton, N.B., E1C8N8.FILMS/PICTURES/SLIDESSALE: Quality color photos. 1984-85 NHL players. All teams 4 &times; 6 $1.00.8x12 $7.00. Rodger Wood, 105 S. Harrison Road, Sterling Park, VA, 22170.QUALITY 8x10&rsquo;s and 11 &times; 14&rsquo;s now available of your favorite NHL player All live color shots from ice level. All photos enlarged from my original negatives and printed on glossy Kodak paper. My third year with many satisfied customers, including players themselves. $4.00 each. 11 &times; 14&rsquo;s $10.00 each. Send SASE for list. John Prigge, 1360 Caribou, Carol Stream, IL, 60188.TOURNAMENTS<h2>OTTAWA CAPITALS SUMMER HOCKEY TOURNAMENT</h2>Minor Atom to Junior. Triple AAA Five games guaranteed. Canada Day Weekend, June 27 to July 1, 1985. Contact:Ottawa Capitals Tournament,932 Plante Drive,Ottawa, Ont. K1V 9E2(613) 731-9345SUMMER MINOR HOCKEY-Tournament &ldquo;85&rdquo;-Toronto-June 28,29,30 (Novice-Mite to Junior). Write; Metro Summer Hockey League, 40 Gerrard St. E. Suite 1505, Toronto, Ont, M5B 2E8 or phone: (416) 597-1346.THE FIRST ANNUAL Wilkes-Barre youth hockey tournament. March 8,9,10. Wilkes-Barre, PA. B and C teams only. Mites, Squirts, Bantams and Jr. C. Contact Ron Rebo (717) 823-0865, Ron Hreha (717)824-0453 or Bill Wiechec (717) 288-0057.NOVELTIESCUSTOM PINS Full color custom pins designed for your amateur hockey club. Great for give-a-ways or fund raisers. For free samples write: Photo-Dome, Co., 725 Branch Ave., Providence, Rl., 02904 or call (401) 351-6555.VIDEO/AUDIOVIDEOTAPES (VHS): 1972 Canada/USSR #8; 1980 USA Olympics (all games); Red Army/Canadiens &lsquo;75 & 79; All Isles Cup; USSR&rsquo;Oilers &lsquo;82; Canada Cup &lsquo;84; Challenge Cup &lsquo;79; Isles/Range. &lsquo;79; Yanks/Bost &lsquo;78, others, for trade Barry A. Winiker, 403 8th St. Brooklyn, NY, 11215.GREATEST HOCKEY FIGHTS from 1978-1984. Two hours on VHS tape. More information write: Andy Boemer, 48 N. Miss River Blvd., St Paul, MN 55104. &#9632;

f0023-02

THE HOCKEY NEWS CLASSIFIED

<div class="byline">BY RICH CHERE</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-01607/4962779-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="571" height="160"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY DEVILS</h2>EAST RUTHERFORD&mdash;An icebag was strapped to Rich Meagher&rsquo;s painful ribs &lsquo;as he sat on the bench in the visitor&rsquo;s dressing room at the Los Angeles Forum, and it was evident he was working a delicate balancing act between breathing and aching.The heavyweights in the Devils&rsquo; lineup are Kirk Muller, Mel Bridgman, Aaron Broten and Doug Sulliman, but the most costly check of the season for New Jersey undoubtedly came on Jan. 14 at Madison Square Garden when the Rangers&rsquo; 6-foot-5, 230-pound Willie Huber slammed Meagher behind the net and badly bruised the 5-foot-8, 175-pound center&rsquo;s ribs.Meagher played the rest of that game, but missed the next five during which the Devils posted an 0-4-1 record without his defensive presence. Meagher was not ready to return to the lineup, but a rash of injuries dictated his coming back on Jan. 29 in Los Angeles. In that game, he was far from his usual self, being on the ice for Dave Taylor&rsquo;s three goals in a 6-3 loss that severely hurt New Jersey&rsquo;s playoff chances.&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t miss how much he contributes until he&rsquo;s not there,&rdquo; said Devil coach Doug Carpenter about Meagher. &ldquo;Then you realize how much you miss both his checking role, and his offensive role, and the way he complements the players he plays with like Rich Preston and Doug Sulliman.&rdquo;Meagher, in his sixth National Hockey League season, may very well have been the most underrated Devil all season. In a 7-5 victory over the Islanders on Dec. 11, Meagher was matched against Bryan Trottier and allowed him just one point; in a stunning 8-3 victory over Quebec on Dec. 15, it was Meagher who kept Peter Stastny pointless; in a 5-2 upset over Edmonton, it was Meagher who held Wayne Gretzky to one assist.&ldquo;You look at every hockey team and he&rsquo;s gone against the best line,&rdquo; said Carpenter. &ldquo;The Trottier and (Mike) Bossy line, Gretzky, Pierre Mondou and Mark Pavelich of the Rangers.&rdquo;Of course, it was almost inevitable that Meagher&rsquo;s success would be curtailed by an injury. Through his entire career, his tendency to wear down or get hurt under constant ice time has stopped him from being a more prominent player.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s pretty much been the story,&rdquo; admitted the 31-year-old Meagher. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just the weight difference. If you go up against guys 60 pounds more than you, you can get hurt. I play with a reckless abandon, too. But that&rsquo;s my style and I won&rsquo;t change my style. Everybody&rsquo;s big and stronger these days, that&rsquo;s for sure. But maybe if I let up, I&rsquo;d get hurt worse.&rdquo;&ldquo;Injury is always a risk, but Ricky plays with such great intensity and extremely hard on each shift,&rdquo; added Carpenter. &ldquo;He plays like a six-footer, but he does log a lot of ice time on a regular shift and killing penalties.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s funny how Meagher has come to be regarded as one of the league&rsquo;s top defensive forwards. For a long time after being drafted by the Montreal Canadiens out of Boston University, he was a fringe player shuttled back and forth between the NHL and the minors.Last season, Devil coach Tom McVie first put Meagher&rsquo;s defensive abilities to work, and this season Carpenter has used him extensively.&ldquo;I think it might&rsquo;ve helped me shuttling back and forth from the minors,&rdquo; Meagher admitted. &ldquo;I might not have gotten so much ice time in the NHL (with Hartford and the Devils). When I was in the Montreal organization, they even had Pierre Larouche in the stands, and that was two years after he scored 53 goals for Pittsburgh. Somebody like that has got to play.&ldquo;In my case, you always worry about getting sent down, and the times it happened I couldn&rsquo;t understand it. As far as I&rsquo;m concerned, the minor leagues are over for me.&rdquo;Part of the reason is Meagher has accepted his role as a defensive center. Now he must pace himself and avoid serious injury.&ldquo;I find myself getting tired late in the year, and at the halfway point,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know my first years I really got tired because I only played 30 games a season in college. Missing a few games could be a blessing. It could help me a lot. Everybody could use a few days off to get some strength back.&rdquo;It may be a blessing for Meagher, but not for the Devils.HOT STUFF&mdash;John MacLean suffered an injury to his right knee in Edmonton on Jan. 25 and then re-injured the knee during a practice in Los Angeles. He returned home for an examination regarding possible cartilege damage. Defenseman Uli Hiemer (bruised knee) and left winger Doug Sulliman (groin pull) are also injure-d&hellip;Assistant coach Lou Vairo, saying he&rsquo;s very happy with his position in New Jersey, has not sought a head coaching job but admitted he would listen to offers when his current contract expires in June. Devil chairman John McMullen is likely to keep both Carpenter and Vairo under contract next season&hellip;The rights to Finn defenseman Tapio Levo could be traded to Edmonton if the Oilers offer the right player. &#9632;

f0024-01

Devils Breathe Easier When Meagher Plays

<div class="byline">BY MIKE KANE</div>GLENS FALLS&mdash;Free agents, first-round draft choices, a couple of Euro-peans, a set of twins, and a goaltender, Ian Wood of Nova Scotia, who hadn&rsquo;t played a minute through the first four months of the season are the 27-man rookie class currently in the American Hockey League&rsquo;s Northern Division.Here&rsquo;s a team by-team look at the rookies in the Northern Division as of Feb. 1.ADIRONDACK&mdash;Forwards Joe Kocur, Carmine Vani and Mike Stem (injured); defenseman Rick Zombo.FREDERICTON&mdash;Forwards Newell Brown, Dave Bruce, Craig Coxe and Steve Driscoll; defensemen Dave Shaw and Roger Haegglund.MAINE&mdash;Forward Allan Stewart; defenseman Ken Daneyko.MONCTON&mdash;Forwards Joel Otto, Mark Lamb, Ted Pearson, Yves Cour-teau and Ed Kastelic; defenseman Robin Bartel and Lou Kiriakou.NOVA SCOTIA&mdash;Forward Steve Graves; defenseman Jim Playfair; goalie Ian Wood.SHERBROOKE&mdash;Forwards Randy Bucyk, Thomas Rundqvist, Alain Heroux, Paul Pooley and Perry Pooley; defenseman Steve Smith.Although Playfair, Daneyko, Shaw and Heroux are former first-round picks and are expected to graduate to the National Hockey League, the player that has attracted the most attention and produced the eye-opening statistics is Otto. Moncton&rsquo;s 6-foot-4 center.Otto, who signed with the Calgary Flames&rsquo; organization a couple of days before the start of training camp, was never selected in the NHL draft. However, he built a faithful following of scouts by leading Bemidji (MN) State to the NCAA Division II title last season. Otto was the top scorer in the division and played a major role in the team&rsquo;s unbeaten season.After 16 weeks as a pro, Otto leads the active AHL rookies in scoring with 22 goals and 54 points in 46 games. He was sixth in league scoring, nine points behind Binghamton&rsquo;s Paul Gardner.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s really surprised us with the soft hands he has for a big player,&rdquo; Moncton coach Pierre Page said. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s probably one of the best big guys in front of the net in terms of the power play. On top of that, he can make plays and can shoot pretty well.&rdquo;Lamb and Bartel are also a big part of the Golden Flames&rsquo; surge in January. After a slow start. Lamb, a left winger, has come on strong and has 15 goals and 45 points in 52 games. In Bartel, a free agent who played with the Canadian Olympic Team, the Golden Flames found the steady defenseman they desperately needed.Zombo, the Des Plaines, IL, native who left the University of North Dakota after his junior year to sign with the Detroit Red Wings, is playing better after a nagging knee injury was finally corrected by arthroscopic surgery early in January.&ldquo;He has got promise, but he needs some more upper body strength,&rdquo; said Adirondack coach Bill Dineen. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got good quickness and he&rsquo;s got good hockey sense. He was just on top of his game about three different times when he came down with knee injuries. So he hasn&rsquo;t had any flow this season.&rdquo;Neither has Playfair, the younger brother of Buffalo defenseman Larry Playfair, and the Edmonton Oilers&rsquo; top pick in 1982. He missed 22 of his team&rsquo;s first 48 games with injuries.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s got a lot of potential,&rdquo; said Nova Scotia coach Larry Kish. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s a big, strong kid. He can really shoot the puck. What he has to do is adjust to the speed of pro over junior.&rdquo;AROUND THE DIVISION&mdash;Fredericton continued its slide with a 7-1 loss at home to Binghamton. The defeat extended the Express&rsquo; winless streak to eight games in which they have lost six and tied two&hellip;Center Alain Lemieux, obtained by Quebec in a trade for Luc Dufour, was expected to be loaned to Fredericton to provide some scoring punch&hellip;Adirondack, which blew three third-period leads in a four-game (0-3-1) winless streak, signed former Maple Leaf left winger Pat Graham and offered a tryout to former Laval center Louis Haman. The Detroit Red Wings assigned right wing Dave Silk to Bill Dineen&rsquo;s club and sent defenseman Larry Trader down for some conditioning work on his surgically-repaired knee. Veterans Andre St. Laurent and Barry Melrose missed games with injuries&hellip;Maine moved to within three points of the Express with wins in three of four games. Goalie Sam St. Laurent blanked the New Haven Nighthawks 1-0 for his third shutout of the season&hellip;Nova Scotia defenseman Steve Smith is likely to miss a month after breaking a bone in his left foot stopping a shot.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-01562/4962810-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="580" height="865"><figcaption class="caption-body">Rick Zombo has come on for Adirondack after arthroscopic surgery to his knee.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0026-01

Y’Otto See New Northern Guys

<div class="byline">BY DICK BAKER</div>SPRINGFIELD&mdash;Quite often, the stars of the National Hockey League end up being the ones who quickly showed their stuff in the fast-paced American Hockey League. In the AHL&rsquo;s Southern Division, ther are several first-year pros who have caught the eye of NHL general managers and scouts. Look for big things from the names mentioned below. Here is the HOCKEY NEWS&rsquo; mid-season list of all-star rookies from the AHL South.GOAL&mdash;Jon Casey, Baltimore. With Roberto Romano in Pittsburgh, the Skipjacks were expected to suffer in goal. Then along came Jon Casey, on loan from the goalie-rich Minnesota North &lsquo;tars. In 24 games, Casey compiled a 13-6-4 mark with a 2.51 goals against average and a 91.21 save percentage, the highest stop ratio in the AHL. Meanwhile, Romano was 2-8-2 in half as many games with an 87.78 save percentage. Casey, who played last year at University of North Dakota, has three shutouts (Rochester, Adirondack, Hershey).RIGHT WING&mdash;Steve Thomas, St. Catharines. On a team that has been generally short of players and wins, the England-born sniper has managed to stand out. Thomas, with 26 goals and 53 points in only 45 games, is especially tough around the net. He is now working on improving his defensive game. Last year, he tallied 51 goals and 54 assists for Toronto of the Ontario Hockey League.CENTER&mdash;Gates Orlando, Rochester. Although he&rsquo;s only 5-foot-8, Orlando registered 24 goals and 29 assists in his first 46 games. Although Claude Verret led the Amerks in goals scored (25), nine of those came on the power play. Thus, Orlando (only three power-play goals) was Rochester&rsquo;s top goal scorer at equal strength (21). The former Providence College star (93 goals in 129 games) played 11 regular-season games for Rochester last year, notching eight goals.LEFT WING&mdash;Bob Bodak, Springfield. A hard-working winger who has improved tremendously. Only four points away from the team scoring lead, Bodak has gotten there by his mucking. Although not especially fast, he is extremely effective along the boards, usually coming away with the puck.DEFENSE&mdash;Ulf Samuelsson, Binghamton. and David H. Jensen. Springfield. Samuelsson is big and strong with a booming shot. Although surrounded by a number of former NHL defensemen as teammates, Samuelsson has been considered by many as Binghamton&rsquo;s best defensemen so far this season. The rap on him is that he is too chippy. Jensen, who has seven goals, is considered one of the best defensive defensemen in the league.<h2>HONORABLE MENTION</h2>GOAL&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz. Binghamton; Darren Jensen, Hershey. Sidorkiewicz. despite being shipped back and forth from Fort Wayne of the International League, has put together an incredible record (13-4-2). He also has a 3.25 goals-against average and a stop ratio of 9.47. Casey chosen ahead of him only because Binghamton has a better team in front of Sidorkiewicz than Casey has in Baltimore.Jensen&rsquo;s 3.61 goals-against average is quite respectable considering Hershey&rsquo;s record.RIGHT WING&mdash;Paul Guay, Hershey. Moved over to the Philadelphia organization from Minnesota in the Paul Holmgren deal last year. Has played better than his 24 points indicates.CENTER&mdash;Todd Bergen, Hershey, and Dean Evason-Ray Ferraro of Binghamton. Bergen, Evason and Ferraro have all been given look-sees by their respective NHL parent clubs this season. Evason recorded six game-winning goals in Binghamton&rsquo;s first 33 wins while pumping out more than a point a game (47 points in 42 games). Forty-four of those points came in the last 34 games. Ferraro has been a ball of fire with 19 goals in 34 games. Bergen had 37 points (19 goals) in his first 35 games.LEFT WING&mdash;Dan Brennan, New Haven. Second on the Nighthawks in scoring (39 points) and first in powerplay goals (7). Had a fast start while playing on a line with Bill O&rsquo;Dwyer and Blaine Stoughton.DEFENSE&mdash;Lots of talent here: Heikki Leime and Timo Jutila from Rochester; Cam Plante, St. Catharines; Vern Smith, Springfield.DOWN SOUTH&mdash;Three Bingham-ton-area businessmen are trying to close a deal to purchase that AHL franchise from the Hartford Whalers. Reports have Tom Mitchell, Bob Carr and Jim McCay in &ldquo;95 percent&rdquo; agreement on the price, somewhere in the vicinity of $350,000.Negotiations have also been moving along with Broome County over the lease of the rink and concessions. Despite the Whalers&rsquo; powerhouse team, attendance averaged only 3,144 for the first 25 dates&hellip;When the Whalers won their 16th road game, it set a team record and left them only six shy of the league mark of 22&hellip;Defenseman Bill Stewart finally reported to St. Catharines after a brief holdout&hellip;After Springfield tough man Tim Coulis got the best of Sherbrooke&rsquo;s Remi Gagne in a brawl at the end of the second period, Jan. 26, the inspired Indians scored four unanswered goals in the third period to pull off a come-from-behind victory over the Canadiens. Sherbrooke had led 4-1. &#9632;

Standouts In Southern Division

<div class="byline">BY BILL PICKETT</div>INDIANAPOLIS&mdash;For the Indianapolis Checkers and their rookie coach Darcy Regier, it&rsquo;s been a trying time in their first season in the International Hockey League.The Checkers, who were in the Central League last season, were narrowly holding on to third place in the West Division as of Jan. 27, but they had only as many points as Toledo, the last-place team in the East.&ldquo;We got off to a 10-6-1 start and what had happened was we won some games on goaltending alone,&rdquo; said Regier. &ldquo;I guess that fooled us, including myself. Then we went seven games without a win (0-6-1) and we discovered we had a lot of work to do.&rdquo;The Checkers put together a modest streak of four games without a loss, then dropped five of six games. A three-game sweep at Salt Lake got them back to. 500 in early January, but since then they haven&rsquo;t picked up a point.&ldquo;We started doing things better,&rdquo; Regier said of the team&rsquo;s play in early January. &ldquo;We got a little better on defense and got things going a bit. Then we came home (from Salt Lake) and lost two games with less than a 100 per cent effort in each. Then we got some injuries and lost a couple of more.&rdquo;The injuries were devastating, wiping out his corps of centers. Rookie Jim Mal-witz and veterans Garth MacGuigan and Charlie Skjodt all suffered knee injuries within 10 days of each other. Malwitz was expected back the weekend of Feb.1. Skjodt was questionable and MacGuigan&mdash;who needed arthroscopic surgery&mdash;may be another couple of weeks away from playing.&ldquo;That leaves us with one center,&rdquo; said Regier. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s Lance Allen, and his experience as a pro includes 15 games. &ldquo;Still, even before the injuries, Regier said the squad had not played with any consistency except in goal, where the veteran Rob Holland has been stopping the league&rsquo;s leaders all season.&ldquo;Now it&rsquo;s a challenge to all of us to get down to work and show what we&rsquo;re made of,&rdquo; said Regier. &ldquo;With this team, everyone has to give 100 per cent all the time for us to win. That takes tremendous sacrifice from each member, and when one person doesn&rsquo;t give of himself to that extent, it pulls the whole team down.&rdquo;In addition to Holland, Regier admits there have been some bright spots. Most notable has been the play of team captain Kevin Devine, playing his sixth consecutive season in Indianapolis.&ldquo;There have been certain individuals who have played pretty well,&rdquo; Regier said. &ldquo;Certainly. Devine has shown the hard work and legendary leadership everyone expected of him. Neal Coulter has come along well (he&rsquo;s the leading goal scorer with 22). Bobby Lakso also is improving. But there have been disappointments.&rdquo;Although he wouldn&rsquo;t specify the disappointments, for the most part his veterans have let him down. Only Coulter and Skjodt, with 20 goals, have shown much offensive punch, although Devine is ahead of last season&rsquo;s scoring pace.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t have anyone along just for the bus ride,&rdquo; Regier stressed. &ldquo;We need total effort all around.&rdquo;Regier admitted the team either has to &ldquo;get more goals or play better defense. With the people we have, it would seem we&rsquo;d be better off trying to improve the defense. From now on, if things go well it will be because of the efforts of everyone, and I include myself in that statement. I&rsquo;ve got to do the best I can, as well.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;A blustery cold spell which put much of the Midwest in the deep freeze in mid-January failed to keep crowds down around the league. The largest crowd of the season&mdash;7,016&mdash;showed up at Fort Wayne and both Muskegon and Indianapolis recorded turnouts of 4,500 or better&hellip;Warren Holmes of Flint and Ron Leef of Fort Wayne registered hat tricks&hellip;Salt Lake City tied an IHL record for most consecutive overtime games in a 4-3 loss to Muskegon on Jan. 21. The Golden Eagles played back-to-back 4-4 ties with Fort Wayne on Jan. 15 and 17&hellip;Salt Lake&rsquo;s Scott MacLeod took the scoring lead with 66 points, including 23 goals, but Gilles Thibaudeau of Flint netted his 39th goal during the week ending Jan. 28&hellip;Dave Michayluk of Kalamazoo has 34. &#9632;

Checkers, Regier Suffer First-Year Pains

<div class="byline">BY BILL CRAWFORD</div>EAST LANSING&mdash;To nobody&rsquo;s great surprise, the Michigan State Spartans clinched the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season title when they blitzed Michigan 11-2 and 9-4 the weekend of Jan. 25-26.What is a bit surprising is the fact that the title is Michigan State&rsquo;s first regularseason chamionship ever&mdash;CCHA, WCHA, Big Ten or any other hockey league considered.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re looking at it as having attained one goal,&rdquo; said MSU assistant coach Terry Christensen. &ldquo;The championship was our first goal this season, but we&rsquo;ve got others.&rdquo;Michigan State has won three CCHA playoff titles and is heavily favored to take another this season.Highly-touted sophomore Craig Simpson propelled the Spartans past Michigan. picking up eight points in the two games, earning CCHA Player-of-the-Week honors and putting him ahead of Illinois-Chicago&rsquo;s Ray Staszak in the league scoring derby.&ldquo;Ours was a very unselfish performance, all weekend,&rdquo; continued Christensen, in his fifth season as Ron Mason&rsquo;s assistant at MSU. &ldquo;Sometimes, when a team breaks out to an early lead and appears headed for an easy win, players go after individual marks, points and press. Not us.&ldquo;We gave up the puck every time for the sake of the play, for the goal. We scored two or three more shorthanded goals, a direct result of one guy&rsquo;s knowledge of the other and of putting the team first.&rdquo;Complacency? Not the Spartans.&ldquo;The WCHA record for most consecutive wins is 22, by Denver (196667),&rdquo; Christensen said. &ldquo;We want that record, now. We&rsquo;ve got 17. Besides, we&rsquo;re too mature, too conscious of the end result and of our goals. We want no letdowns prior to playoffs.&rdquo;The NCAA unbeaten record is 46 games, accomplished by Dartmouth, circa 1941-43. Those teams also recorded the most consecutive wins (32).The Spartans are in the midst&mdash;make that stretch&mdash;of their best Division One hockey season ever. And the CCHA and NCAA finals are in their backyard&mdash;Joe Louis Arena in Detroit&mdash;known better as Munn East, because Spartan boosters pack Joe Louis just as they fill Biggie Munn Arena on campus at MSU. If ever a season was tailor-made for a team to win a national championship, this is it.&ldquo;There are a lot of things to keep us motivated now,&rdquo; said Christensen. &ldquo;We can determine the fates of those teams below us in the standings, too. We still have series against (second and third overall) Lake Superior and Bowling Green.&rdquo;CCHA CHATTER&mdash;Tragedy struck the Miami University hockey program the weekend of Jan. 25-26 when Leeann Davidge, wife of Miami asistant Bill Davidge, was killed in a car-truck collision. She was the women&rsquo;s tennis coach at Miami, Coach of the Year in the MidAmerican Conference three times, and was returning home from the Dayton Airport with a pair of recruits when the accident occurred. The University has set up a scholarship fund in her memory&hellip;Illinois-Chicago&rsquo;s sweep at Ferris State the weekend of Jan. 25-26 was the Flames&rsquo; first road sweep ever and propelled them into a third-place tie with Bowling Green&hellip;Ohio State&rsquo;s sweep of Western Michigan the same weekend was OSU&rsquo;s first sweep of the season and put it into a tie with Western for fifth spot, increasing the interest in the fight for playoff spots with just four weeks of play left&hellip;MSU defenseman Gary Haight had four assists against Michigan and moved two up on Norm Barnes as MSU&rsquo;s all-time best-scoring defenseman. Haight had 122 career points after the Michigan series to Barnes&rsquo; career total of 120 points&hellip;Wayne Collins of Bowling Green set a career points&rsquo; mark for BG goalies when he got his sixth career assist in a non-conference win over St. Lawrence University on Jan.25.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-01535/4962889-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="578" height="681"><figcaption class="caption-body">Craig Simpson helped Michigan State clinch the conference title with eight points in two games.</figcaption></div><h2>CORRECTION</h2>In the Feb. 8, 1985 issue of THE HOCKEY NEWS, the CCHA report was under the byline of Glenn Healy. In fact, the story was written by Bill Crawford. THN regrets any inconvenience the error may have caused. &#9632;

f0028-01

Spartans Make Good On Title Goal

<div class="byline">BY TOM BURKE</div>BOSTON&mdash;The East-West games are finally over, at least until the national playoffs, so let&rsquo;s reflect on the first year of The Grand Experiment.Artistically, it was great. The bonafide hockey fans loved it. To be sure, Clarkson, RPI, Cornell and Harvard were missed&hellip;but everything has its price.As for the bragging rights, deja vu. The final score reads West 66 wins, East 42 wins, four ties. Hockey East teams playing at home were 26-27-3, while on the road they were 16-39-1. Only Boston College and Providence, at 11-5 and 9-52, respectively, managed winning slates against their WCHA opponents.Maine and Northeastern were 1-7 in WCHA arenas, while Lowell was perfect&mdash;0-8. To be fair to the Chiefs, they travelled to the four toughest foes&rsquo; dens this year: North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Minnesota-Dutluth. At home against the Western League&rsquo;s remainder, they were a respectable 4-4.This is, in fact, a down year for most of Hockey East. Boston University is a solid second behind BC, but the Terriers just haven&rsquo;t been very good. They work hard and scrap, and they&rsquo;re down to their third goalie, walk-on Bob Deraney. New Hampshire, the other team that was supposed to challenge the Terriers and Eagles for supremacy, has lost three in a row after a good 10-2 streak put them back into the hunt. UNH&rsquo;s defense has turned philanthropic again, while BU is desperate for goals.Providence is something of a mystery team, but they only have one dangerous line in Tim Army, Art Yeomelakis and Steve Rooney. Goalie Chris Terreri has outperformed Mary Lou Retton for acrobatic points, and he&rsquo;s got to be feeling the strain.Northeastern, Lowell and Maine are all about where they were expected to be. NU&rsquo;s defense is spotty and the offense consists of Rod Isbister. Mark Lori and Kevin Heffernan. Not enough of the supporting cast of forwards has come thorugh for Northeastern, although the ability is there.Lowell and Maine are both too young to be serious threats, so coaches Bill Riley and Shawn Walsh are biding time for the playoffs and are hoping to get lucky therein. It might just happen.Boston College is the league&rsquo;s only formidable team. The defense has had its shaky moments, but the Eagles work the puck offensively as well as any team in the game. Nine juniors are playing regularly for BC, who will win the league pennant and draw a first-round playoff bye.&ldquo;Sure the league is down a little this year,&rdquo; said Maine coach Walsh. &ldquo;But you wait a year or two. All the good recruits are coming to Hockey East.&rdquo;Three of Maine&rsquo;s four centers are freshmen, and the defensive tandem of Dave Nonis and Stan Czenczek are still together. Senior left winger Ron Hellen awakened from his early slump and strung together a 10-game point scoring streak.Hellen and fellow senior Ray Jacques flank freshman Todd Studnicka, who didn&rsquo;t play for the first eight games of the season. Studnicka is not a fast skater, and Walsh claims not to have been impressed with his initial practice outings, but his good hockey sense gets Studnicka high marks, and he has been scoring at a little less than a point per game.Lowell has dropped six league games in a row and has set a new record (18) for number of losses at the school. The only line that has done much damage for the Chiefs is the trio of right winger John Shumski, the transfer from RPI, center John Morris and left winger Mike Opre. Lowell, you&rsquo;ll recall, is in just its second year of competing at a Division One level after dominating NCAA Division II.While Northeastern&rsquo;s point totals&mdash;20&mdash;have them a close fourth in the Hockey East race, they are in the worst position for the playoff fight because they&rsquo;ve played 29 games, three to six more than anyone else in the the league. The Huskies have dropped nine of their last 10 contests. With sophomore Greg Pratt out for the season with a knee injury, coach Fernie Flaman continues to experiment with his left wingers to find the best companion for Isbister and Lori.Similar to everyone else but BC, Boston Univesity has had trouble scoring. Their top line, put together six games ago, has freshman Clark Donatelli on left wing, sophomore John Cullen at center and sophomore Ed Lowney on right wing. Cullen is 13-13-26 in BU&rsquo;s last 13 contests after a slow beginning, but the real news item is goalie Deraney. He lost 40 pounds over the summer and has won five consecutive games after injuries to Peter Fish and a bursitis condition of Terry Taillefer&rsquo;s thrust him into the cage.Boston College raised its record to 21-7-1 overall with its 9-3 win over Maine. Never has a BC team passed the 20 win mark so early in the year. &#9632;

Hockey East Is Down But Not Out

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-02375/4962965-1-eng-US/f0028-022.jpg" title="f0028-02" width="406" height="526"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAN DORION W. Michigan</figcaption></div><h2>CCHA</h2>Junior center Dan Dorion scored four goals and four assists to lead Western Michigan to a two-game sweep of Bowling Green and win the honor as CCHA Performer of the Week. A draft pick of the New Jersey Devils, Dorion had three goals in one game, including the winner.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03273/4962958-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg" title="f0028-03" width="411" height="520"><figcaption class="caption-body">KEVIN STEVENS Boston College</figcaption></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST</h2>Boston College sophomore left winger Kevin Stevens was chosen Hockey East Performer of the Week after figuring in five goals as BC trounced Lowell 15-8. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder had 27 scoring points for the topranked Eagles.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-04201/4962951-1-eng-US/f0028-042.jpg" title="f0028-04" width="405" height="523"><figcaption class="caption-body">TOM DRAPER Vermont</figcaption></div><h2>ECAC</h2>Vermont Catamount sophomore goaltender Tom Draper stopped 48 shots in a 3-1 upset victory over third-ranked Clarkson and earned ECAC Performer of the Week honors. The win was only the second of the year for Vermont.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-05172/4962944-1-eng-US/f0028-052.jpg" title="f0028-05" width="409" height="522"><figcaption class="caption-body">RICK KOSTI Min-Duluth</figcaption></div><h2>WCHA</h2>Minnesota-Duluth goaltender Rick Kosti made 42 saves and recorded a 5-0 shutout victory as the Bulldogs swept Denver. Kosti, the WCHA Performer of the Week, lowered his league-leading goals-against average to 3.08.THE BAUER PERFORMERS OF THE WEEK &#9632;

f0028-02

Bauer FIT FOR PERFORMANCE

<div class="byline">BY VIRG FOSS</div>MADISON&mdash;For the second year in a row, Wisconsin is finding it difficult to finish higher than fourth in the tough Western Collegiate Hockey Association.It&rsquo;s an unusual situation for the Badgers, who have finished at least third in five of the last eight leagues races and have won NCAA titles in 1977, &lsquo;81 and &lsquo;83.The fact that the Badgers strike it hot in uneven numbered years may be the only good news coming out of Badgerland these days, unless a late-season surge carries Wisconsin higher than their present fourth-place standing.In years past, the Badgers have been noted for their solid goaltending and stout defense, which is what it usually takes to win in any league.Those items have been conspicuous by their absence for the Badgers much of this season, one reason why Wisconsin is battling it out with five other league teams for the coveted fourth position, which carries with it home ice in the first round of the league playoffs, March 1-2.While Wisconsin is tied for second in number of goals scored with 129 in 26 games, the same as second-place Minnesota, the Badgers have had trouble preventing them. They&rsquo;ve given up 126, which ties them for last with Colorado College.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still having problems with our team defense,&rdquo; said Wisconsin assistant coach Mike Kemp. &ldquo;The last two weekends, we&rsquo;ve given up 17 and 11, respectively, in the two-game series, so we&rsquo;re having trouble keeping the puck out of our own net.&rdquo;Even with the defensive woes, Wisconsin has mustered enough firepower to win three of its last four games to climb into fourth, humbling Denver once and New Hampshire twice, while falling in another shootout to Denver.&ldquo;We&rsquo;re in a situation where we haven&rsquo;t been before,&rdquo; Kemp said. &ldquo;In the past, we&rsquo;ve been a solid team defensively. Now we&rsquo;re in a situation where we&rsquo;re having to outscore other teams to win, rather than relying on our defense and goaltending.&rdquo;It&rsquo;s been especially unnerving for Kemp, who usually watches the games from the press box and relays his observations to Wisconsin head coach Jeff Sauer.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough to win big games when you&rsquo;re trying to do it by running a lot of goals to outscore your opponent,&rdquo; Kemp said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a reversal of rules for us from the past. When you&rsquo;re watching those kind of games from the press box, you never know when the scoring is going to quit. We score, then the other team goes down the ice and scores. It&rsquo;s not the kind of games we like to be involved in.&rdquo;But Wisconsin, similar to many of the WCHA teams, is in the midst of a youth movement, hard hit by the post 1984 Olympic defections to the pros and, of course, graduation.Wisconsin did turn a few heads by sweeping New Hampshire, which had come on to play some good hockey after a dismal start. Wisconsin&rsquo;s 18-goal weekend marked the most productive offensive output of the season for the Badgers.&ldquo;The puck went in for us, more than anything else,&rdquo; Kemp said. &ldquo;We certainly didn&rsquo;t make any dramatic changes. We just had some good luck and fortunate bounces of the puck.&rdquo; start of the season by sophomore forward Tony Granato, but lately the opposition has been keying on him, so teammates such as Paul Houston, Paul Houck, Jim Johannson, Scott Mellanby and Dave Maley have come on to ease the pressure.With eight games to go, Wisconsin seeks to do the same as a team, has collected 10 goals in his last four games to raise his season goal production to 27, tops for the Sioux&hellip;Freshman center Tony Hrkac, who has sat out six games for &ldquo;disciplinary reasons,&rdquo; has returned to the Sioux lineup&hellip;When Colorado College upset Minnesota 5-4 in overtime in Minneapolis recently, the Tigers got the tying goal with less than a minute left in regulation when defenseman Rob Doyle scored from outside the blue line. Then CC&rsquo;s Ken Filbey got the winner in overtime to hand the Gophers a rare home defeat&hellip;There were a few heads spinning in the WCHA when Northern Michigan skated into Minnesota-Duluth and snapped Duluth&rsquo;s 22-game home-ice unbeaten streak by beating the Bulldogs 5-4. Chief among those not doing handstands, though, was Northern Michigan coach Rick Comley. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to rave too much when you&rsquo;re in eight place,&rdquo; he said&hellip;Colorado College has served notice it&rsquo;s on its way back by taking overtime wins from North Dakota and Minnesota on successive weekends&hellip;Denver was on an upswing, too, until Providence College goalie Chris Terreri cooled off the Pioneers in Denver. &#9632;

This Is Really An Off Year For Wisconsin

<div class="byline">BY TOM BOGGIE</div>ITHACA&mdash;The Cornell University team is suffering from an identity crisis.It&rsquo;s not that the Big Red hasn&rsquo;t been able to deal with its success in the Eastern Colleges Athletic Conference (ECAC) this season, it&rsquo;s just that the other teams in the league can&rsquo;t get a handle on what Cornell is really made of.For example, this is supposed to be a team without superstars, but forwards Duanne Moeser, Peter Natyshak and Gary Cullen can hold their own with anyone in the league. This team wasn&rsquo;t supposed to strong defensively, but a fresh-man goalie from West Hill, Ont., has dispelled those rumors. And although the Big Red was looked at as a lower echelon team in the pre-season, they were in the thick of a battle for home ice in the ECAC playoffs at the halfway point of the season.What gives here, anyway?&ldquo;To be honest, yes, I thought we&rsquo;d be in the fight for home ice this year,&rdquo; said coach Lou Reycroft. &ldquo;We try to be realistic in terms of forecasting what the club will do. In terms of the progress of the program in the last three years, we felt we were capable of being a home-ice team this year. We still have half a season left, so we&rsquo;re not taking anything for granted.&rdquo;But the other teams in the league aren&rsquo;t taking anything for granted when they go up against the Big Red, either. After sweeping Colgate late in January to run its win streak to five games, the Big Red were 8-3-1 in the league and 9-6-2 overall. Not too shabby.While players such as Harvard&rsquo;s Scott Fusco, RPI&rsquo;s Adam Oates and Clarkson&rsquo;s Jamie Faile grab a lot of the head-lines, the Cornell stars just keep putting wins on the board, with very little fanfare.&ldquo;My approach is that we have some real good individual players,&rdquo; said Reycroft. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just not as aggressive about publicizing the individuals. I think we have kids capable of earning postseason honors, but they&rsquo;re the type of kids who let the play take care of itself. An example of that is Duanne Moeser, who very quietly last year scored 50 points and was the third-leading scorer in the ECAC. He had an All-American credentials year.&rdquo;This season, Moeser has offensive suppport and the Big Red is making the most of it.&ldquo;The strength of this year&rsquo;s club is balance,&rdquo; said Reycroft. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a balanced offense with three good lines, we have good defense and we&rsquo;re getting good goaltending from Doug Dadswell.&ldquo;Peter Natyshak is playing up to his capabilities,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;He had a very good freshman year and a not so good sophomore year, but we saw signs early on of what kind of player he could be. Gary Cullen is having a good season. In terms of statistics, it&rsquo;s probably not as good as he&rsquo;d like, but I think he&rsquo;s having the best season of his college career.&ldquo;Another player who has really helped us offensively is senior Mark Henderson. Mark has been a role player for us, a penalty-killer and fourth-line wing. But he&rsquo;s having a terrific season. He has nine goals, and every goal he gets is a big one, if not a winner, then a go-ahead. The other forward who&rsquo;s made a real impact is freshman Joe Nieuwen-dyk. He&rsquo;s centering Natyshak&rsquo;s line and is really starting to score now.&rdquo;Then there is Dadswell. Both Jim Edmands and Don Fawcett struggled in goal as freshmen last season and the door was wide open when Dadswell walked through.&ldquo;People are starting to draw comparisons between him and Brian Hayward (Winnipeg Jets) and Darren Eliot (Los Angeles Kings), who were here a couple of years ago,&rdquo; Reycroft said. &ldquo;I try to avoid that because they&rsquo;re different teams in different seasons. Doug is a very consistent goaltender. He&rsquo;s very aggressive and very competitive. He came in here with good technical knowledge. I&rsquo;ve worked with him, but I haven&rsquo;t tampered with him.&rdquo;While every team in the ECAC would like to get home ice for the playoffs, Cornell knows that if it can get someone to come into Lynah Rink for a two-game series, the Big Red could be on their way to the Boston Garden for the semi-finals.&ldquo;I feel any team plays better at home, but the environment here is pretty special,&rdquo; said Reycroft. &ldquo;We enjoy absolutely tremendous fan support every year. They turn out in droves. What makes Lynah special is the fans themselves. Hockey is a very big deal in Ithaca and they don&rsquo;t come to sit on their hands.&rdquo; &#9632;

Cornell Winning Without Fanfare

<h2>WCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 8)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-01523/4963163-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg" title="f0030-01" width="530" height="267"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Feb. 1Colorado College 2 at Wisconsin 7Denver 2 at Min-Duluth 7Minnesota 4 at Mich Tech 1North Dakota 4 at N. Michigan 5Sat. Feb. 2Colorado College 2 at Wisconsin 4Denver 0 at Min-Duluth 5Minnesota 5 at Mich Tech 7North Dakota 2 at N. Michigan 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-02388/4963156-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="535" height="271"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-03268/4963149-1-eng-US/f0030-032.jpg" title="f0030-03" width="547" height="94"></div><h2>HOCKEY EAST CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-04184/4963142-1-eng-US/f0030-042.jpg" title="f0030-04" width="539" height="236"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Jan. 29Salem State 2 at Providence 4Wed. Jan. 30Lowell 6 at Boston College 15Boston Univ. 10 at New Hampshire 7Northeastern 4 at Maine 2Sat. Feb. 2New Hampshire 7 at Maine 6Sun. Feb. 3New Hampshire 7 at Maine 3Lowell 3 at Providence 7<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-05122/4963135-1-eng-US/f0030-052.jpg" title="f0030-05" width="539" height="183"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0694/4963128-1-eng-US/f0030-062.jpg" title="f0030-06" width="532" height="147"></div><h2>ECAC CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Fri. Feb. 8)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0775/4963121-1-eng-US/f0030-072.jpg" title="f0030-07" width="543" height="414"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Jan. 28Dartmouth 1 at Harvard 7Tue. Jan. 29Williams 2 at Army 7Fri. Feb. 1Colgate 2 at Princeton 4RPI 7 at Clarkson 4Vermont 1 at St. Lawrence 6Dartmouth 5 at Brown 3Harvard 2 at Yale 6Sat. Feb. 2Vermont 3 at Clarkson 1RPI 7 at St. Lawrence 4Harvard 2 at Brown 1Dartmouth 3 at Yale 8St. Anselm&rsquo;s 3 at Army 4Sun. Feb. 3Cornell 5 at Princeton 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0866/4963114-1-eng-US/f0030-082.jpg" title="f0030-08" width="533" height="270"></div><h2>CCHA CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 6)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-0958/4963107-1-eng-US/f0030-092.jpg" title="f0030-09" width="536" height="290"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Fri. Feb. 1Ferris State 3 at Lake Superior 5Illinois-Chicago 4 at Michigan 3Miami 7 at Ohio State 3W. Michigan 5 at Bowling Green 2Sat. Feb. 2Ferris State 5 at Lake Superior 10Illinois-Chicago 3 at Michigan 4Ohio State 5 at Miami 4W. Michigan 8 at Bowling Green 5Mich State 10 at N. Arizona 2<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1050/4963100-1-eng-US/f0030-102.jpg" title="f0030-10" width="536" height="354"></div><h2>ONTARIO CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1144/4963093-1-eng-US/f0030-112.jpg" title="f0030-11" width="533" height="412"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Toronto 7, Guelph 5Western 7, Waterloo 1McMaster 7, Brock 5Laurier 3, Windsor 3RMC 7, Waterloo 2McMaster 7, Ryerson 5York 10, Laurentian 3Queen&rsquo;s 6, Western 3Western 9, RMC 6Laurentian 6, York 5Queen&rsquo;s 4, Waterloo 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1241/4963086-1-eng-US/f0030-122.jpg" title="f0030-12" width="539" height="354"></div><h2>ATLANTIC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1338/4963079-1-eng-US/f0030-132.jpg" title="f0030-13" width="534" height="296"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Moncton 5, Mt. Allison 3Moncton 8, St. Mary&rsquo;s 1UPEI 5, Mt. Allison 2St. Mary&rsquo;s 4, St. Thomas 2Acadia 7, St. F. Xavier 3Dalhousie 6, New Brunswick 5Dalhousie 6, St. Thomas 2UPEI 4, Moncton 1<h2>QUEBEC CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1435/4963072-1-eng-US/f0030-142.jpg" title="f0030-14" width="529" height="178"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Ottawa 5, Concordia 4T-Rivieres 3, McGill 2McGill 11, T-Rivieres 2Chicoutimi 8, Concordia 6T-Rivieres 8, Chicoutimi 7<h2>CANADA WEST CONFERENCE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1535/4963065-1-eng-US/f0030-152.jpg" title="f0030-15" width="530" height="178"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Alberta 8, UBC 3Alberta 12, UBC 4Calgary 3, Lethbridge 2Lethbridge 5, Calgary 3<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1629/4963058-1-eng-US/f0030-162.jpg" title="f0030-16" width="530" height="326"></div><h2>GREAT PLAINS CONFERENCE</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1729/4963051-1-eng-US/f0030-172.jpg" title="f0030-17" width="535" height="154"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Manitoba 10, Regina 7Brandon 11, Lakehead 4Manitoba 3, Regina 3Brandon 14, Lakehead 3Regina 10, Lakehead 7Regina 7, Lakehead 4<h2>ONTARIO COLLEGES</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 4)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1826/4963044-1-eng-US/f0030-182.jpg" title="f0030-18" width="535" height="268"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Humber 12, Conestoga 4Georgian 8, Sheridan 5Sherdian 7, Centennial 2Canadore 4, Centennial 3Humber 5, Georgian 3St. Clair 8, Georgian 5Seneca 9, Centennial 4St. Clair 10, Conestoga 2 &#9632;

f0030-01

HOW THEY STAND

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-19" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-1920/4963194-1-eng-US/f0030-192.jpg"></div>(STATISTICS INCLUDE GAMES OF JAN. 20) &#9632;

f0030-19

NCAA DIVISION I LEADING SCORERS

<div class="byline">BY JOHN HERBERT</div>LONDON&mdash;The London Knights are hoping a new dawn has arrived.Mindful of years of futility in the record books, the upstart Knights and their general manager-coach Don Boyd rock-ed the Ontario Hockey League before the trade deadline Feb. I with a pair of major deals designed to make them a power along with the Soo Greyhounds, and a couple of other clubs gearing up for a run at the OHL title and Memorial Cup.Not to be outdone, the Greyhounds answered London&rsquo;s challenge of bringing in Trevor Steinburg, Gafnet McKechney and Greg Puhalski with a blockbuster move of their own.The Hounds picked up Kitchener right winger Wayne Presley, a 63-goal scorer last year, for rookie Shawn Tyers. The Hounds also announced that defenseman Jeff Beukeboom had been recalled by the Edmonton Oilers on an emergency basis to replace Lee Fogolin. There was no indication if, or when, he would return.London has not been to the Memorial Cup since joining the OHL in 1965-66 as the London Nationals, a farm team of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 1967-68, they became the Knights, and although they have done well compared to other clubs at the box office, they have failed to win a league title.First, the Knights landed 19-year-old left winger Puhalski and 19-year-old right winger McKechney from the Kitchener Rangers for 17-year-old rookie Brad Sparkes and the Knights&rsquo; third-round and one of their two fourth-round picks in the 1985 midget draft.The news of that trade had barely broken when Boyd completed another major swap with the Guelph Platers.Boyd acquired Steinburg, an 18-year-old right winger, in exchange for second-year center Mike Murray, 18, and rookie center Ron Coutts. Steinburg, the first pick of the OHL draft by the Platers in their second season, was a first-round selection of the Quebec Nordiques last June.The results brought the Knights instant results with a pair of convincing back-to-back victories over Guelph (8-1) and Kingston (10-4), but did not produce the intended outcome in a showdown with the Greyhounds.The Greyhounds rolled to a 9-3 win over the new-look Knights before 4,095 fans at the Sault Memorial Gardens to run their league-record winning streak on home ice to 23-0, three short of the Canadian record set by the Sorel Black Hawks in 1975-76. It was the Hounds&rsquo; first win in three meetings with London.Then the Hounds went shopping for Presley.The reaction to the flurry of deals was positive in London.Gary Alan Price&rsquo;s popular phone-in program, Sportscall, was flooded with calls endorsing the deal and ultimate support was proven when just under 3,500 turned out for a game with last-place Kingston as the new players made their home debut. Some fans lined up for a half hour during that game to obtain the remaining tickets for the Greyhounds&rsquo; visit to London on Feb. 1, assuring the, Knights of their second sellout crowd of 5.600 of the year.,That game was sold out a week in advance.&ldquo;We want to make sure we&rsquo;re in the hunt,&rdquo; Boyd said in reference to his team&rsquo;s pursuit of the Greyhounds while at the same time trying to keep ahead of North Bay and Hamilton Steelhawks in the Emms Division.&ldquo;We looked at our injury list and our potential (in the playoffs) and felt we needed experienced wingers. We&rsquo;re day to day with some players including Brian Dobbin (stretched ligaments in his shoulder) and we just felt we had to make a move in that direction.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve liked Garnet McKechney for quite a long time. I watched the successes he had last year with the Kitchener club and he&rsquo;s been there (to the Memorial Cup). The same applies with Puhalski. He&rsquo;s also got a great touch and we felt that was important.&rdquo;Puhalski had 99 points last season but was off to a slow start this season because of a knee injury. In his first three starts with London. Puhalski had two goals and five assists to boost his season total to 19 goals and 34 assists in 31 games. McKechney had a goal and two assists in his first three games with London to improve his points to 13 goals and 26 assists in 43 games.Steinburg, who is playing with a cast to protect a broken hand, produced two goals and two assists in three games with the Knights. Out of the lineup much of the season, Steinburg had seven goals and 10 assists in 18 games, and had asked to be traded before Christmas.Although the moves were geared toward a possible championship, the Knights were also aware the Greyhounds hadn&rsquo;t closed up operations and the deal with Kitchener reminded them of that. London defenseman Greg Smyth was mindful of that when he discussed the moves.&ldquo;We can&rsquo;t say right now if these trades are going to take us to the Memorial Cup,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll have a better idea after the games with the Sault.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Kingston fired coach Rick Comacchia after the Canadians lost their 31st game of the season, 6-4 to Cornwall on Jan. 29. Team president Jerry Wagner said assistant coach Jim Dorey, a former defenseman in the National Hockey League and World Hockey Association, would replace Comacchia for the remainder of the season.Quote of the Week&mdash;&rdquo;They&rsquo;re an explosive club,&rdquo; Sudbury defenseman Jeff Brown said diplomatically after a 6-3 win over the Guelph Platers, the lowest scoring team in the OHL with 151 goals in 46 games, 100 less than the Soo Greyhounds.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-01480/4963225-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="582" height="890"><figcaption class="caption-body">Trevor Steinburg was granted his wish for a trade when Guelph dealt him to London.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0031-01

Knights, Soo Deal For Championship Bid

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02339/4963270-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="560" height="563"><figcaption class="caption-body">DAVE LATTA Kitchener</figcaption></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>Dave Latta of the Kitchener Rangers is well ahead of his point-scoring pace for last season.It took the 6-foot, 180-pound left winger 66 games to score 43 points in 1983-84. This year he already has 43 points and he&rsquo;s played in only 39 games. Latta was selected as the OHL Player of the Week after his nine-point performance in three games for Kitchener. Six of his points were goals.The 18-year-old Latta has scored 26 times, tops on the Rangers. He had 17 all last season.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-03251/4963263-1-eng-US/f0031-032.jpg" title="f0031-03" width="553" height="563"><figcaption class="caption-body">CLIFF RONNING New Westminster</figcaption></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>At his present pace, Cliff Ronning of New Westminster could finish the Western Hockey League season with better than 200 points.The brilliant Bruins&rsquo; center is the top scorer in the league with 126 points at just past the halfway mark in the schedule. Ronning was named the WHL Player of the Week for the third time this season as he collected an incredible 19 scoring points in four games.Ronning, a seventh-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 1983, has 60 goals in 47 games.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-04186/4963256-1-eng-US/f0031-042.jpg" title="f0031-04" width="559" height="568"><figcaption class="caption-body">STEPHANE RICHER Chicoutimi</figcaption></div><h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>Stephane Richer of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens never had it as good before he was traded away by the Granby Bisons last year.The 6-foot-2, 195-pound draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens picked up 11 points to get the nod as the QHL Player of the Week, and pushed his season record to 78 points, the same number he had with Granby in 1983-84 at the end of 70-game season.Richer has 38 goals with the Sagueenens after 46 games. He counted 39 last year in 67 outings with Granby.At the end of the current season. THE HOCKEY NEWS will select a Micron Junior Player of the Year &#9632;

f0031-02

MICRON JUNIOR PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

<div class="byline">BY BEN KUZMA</div>KELOWNA&mdash;It&rsquo;s nearing the stretch drive in the race for playoff positions in the Western Hockey League and the Kelowna Wings are hoping a change in jockeys will keep them ahead of a fastclosing Western Division pack.General manager and coach Marc Pezzin relinquished the coaching reins on Jan. 26. Now it&rsquo;s up to 35-year-old new-comer Bill Hogaboam to keep guiding the Wings into the playoffs.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a little bit of pressure because I haven&rsquo;t done a lot of coaching,&rdquo; said the Swift Current, Sask., native.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just going out there to coach game by game and keep the enthusiasm up. Everybody has to be positive.&rdquo;Hogaboam, a Saskatchewan Blade graduate, had National Hockey League stops in Atlanta, Detroit and Minnesota from 1972-80. After finishing his playing days in the minors in the 1982-83 season, Hogaboam moved to Kelowna, where he is employed in the insurance business. Last season he helped run the Wings&rsquo; home practices.Kelowna, at one point this season a solid second in the six-team division, could hear footsteps growing louder after 46 games. The Wings were in third place, three points ahead of Victoria Cougars, six up on Seattle Breakers and just seven ahead of the last place Portland Winter Hawks. With the Kamloops Blazers and New Westminster Bruins running a strong first and second, respectively, two of the remaining four teams are destined to miss post-season play.With pressure mounting, Pezzin admitted coaching major junior was getting the better of him after a successful tenure as coach of the Tier II BCJHL Penticton Knights.&ldquo;I was spinning my wheels as a coach,&rdquo; said Pezzin. &ldquo;Being so close and yet not there has made it difficult over the past two and a half years. We&rsquo;ve lost 15 games this season by one goal, and even if we had won half of them it wouldn&rsquo;t be a horse race.&ldquo;But after being emotionally pounded for so long I&rsquo;ve just had enough. It (the coaching change) has been in the back of my mind but I wanted to first get through January before we made any changes. January was a tough month on our schedule and it wasn&rsquo;t fair to start anybody off at that time.&rdquo;Pezzin said it&rsquo;s more than stocking the roster which concerns him in Kelowna.&ldquo;One reason is the general manager&rsquo;s end,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;tgiving it enough time and both ends were suffering. We only had 800 fans for Moose Jaw and we expected to have 2,500 for Prince Albert and had just 1,800.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very difficult to be supportive of the city because somewhere down the line they (the fans) have to support the hell out of this hockey club. They&rsquo;re iike our players&mdash;one year away from being a good franchise.&rdquo;Injuries haven&rsquo;t helped the Wings either.Although Kelowna has some genuine WHL stars, the problem arises when injuries set in because of a lack of depth. The Wings, who will be a force next season when most of the roster returns, had key players out of their lineup entering February.Center Brent Gilchrist, the team&rsquo;s best all-around performer, was out with strained knee ligaments while left winger Dwaine Hutton, in the league&rsquo;s top-20 in scoring, was sidelined with a broken kneecap. Steady defenseman Greg Zuk was gone with a shoulder separation.&ldquo;If we don&rsquo;t get the key personnel back we&rsquo;U have to suffer,&rdquo; said Pezzin. &ldquo;March will work in our favor. We have a good schedule, and if everyone is back we&rsquo;U be right in the thick of it.&rdquo;NOTES&mdash;Cliff Ronning of New Westminster continued to lead the scoring derby with 124 points, including a league-high 60 goals. Dan Hodgson of Prince Albert was second with 108 points.In goaltending, Troy Gamble of Medicine Hat led the way with a 2.75 goals against average.In Canadian Major Junior Hockey League top-10 rankings based on winning percentage, Prince Albert remained first at. 837, while Kamloops was tied for third. Medicine Hat and New Westminster were also in the top-10.Jim Camazzola, the all-star left winger in the 1984 Memorial Cup, ended his season-long hibernation on Jan. 26 when he finally suited up and scored twice in New Westminster&rsquo;s 11-2 romp over division-leading Kamloops Blazers. It was the first game of the season for the overage Camazzola who was dealt by the Blazers to the Bruins earlier this season.Seven players were assessed various suspensions following a brawl on Jan. 21 between the Calgary Wranglers and Lethbridge Broncos. Calgary forward Landis Chaulk was hit with a five-game suspension and $500 fine for being first off the bench. Teammates Mike Butka received two games for leaving the bench while the Wranglers&rsquo; Dan Hodge and Ed Brost were also suspended. Hodge got two games for leaving the penalty box and Brost one game for fighting in the penalty box.Dwight Mullins of Lethbridge received two for fighting and another for brawling in the penalty box. Bronco goaltender Shawn Oswald received two games for fighting while teammate Mike Berger got two games for leaving the penalty box.Brandon coach Jack Sangster was assessed a $200 fine for hoisting a white towel on a stick to complain about officiating during a Jan. 20 game in Prince Albert. &#9632;

Pezzin Hands Hogaboam Coaching Reins

<div class="byline">BY RICK MAYOH</div>MONTREAL&mdash;The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League&rsquo;s board of governors voted unanimously to back Shawinigan as the site of the 1985 Memorial Cup, despite criticism of the city&rsquo;s facilities.&ldquo;We do expect some problems,&rdquo; said QMJHL president Dr. Guy Morissette of Hull.&rdquo; But we&rsquo;re going to send a Telex to Ed Chynoweth, president of the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League, telling him we&rsquo;re backing Shawinigan all the way.&rdquo;The CMJHL, an umbrella group for the Ontario, Quebec and Western major junior leagues, must approve the site. Morissette said he plans to meet with Chynoweth and OHL commissioner Dave Branch in Shawinigan, a city of 28,000, about 90 miles northeast of Montreal.Morissette said Harry Littler, president of a company involved in organizing the annual major junior hockey championship tournament with the CMJHL and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, had misgivings about the site for the competition, scheduled for May 1118.&ldquo;Littler told us the sponsors would hesitate because it is a small city with an old builing,&rdquo; Morissette said. &ldquo;But the Shawinigan Cataractes called Molson and Cooper (major sponsors) and they said it was fine.&rdquo;Concerns about the availability of hotel rooms and media facilities in Shawinigan&rsquo;s aging 2,800-seat arena also have been raised.&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got television problems, there is not sufficient lighting in the building,&rdquo; said Littler. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the main problem. Television is a very important part of the Memorial Cup. Without it, there are no sponsors.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a Quebec League decision, not ours. I won&rsquo;t know what the situation is until I go in there.&rdquo;The championship contest is being televised nationally by CTV and all of the other games will be broadcast by The Sports Network.&ldquo;We had some lighting engineers study the building and they said it is sufficient,&rdquo; Morissette said. &ldquo;There are about 55,000 people in the area and the arena has a standing-room capacity of about 4,800. There are 225 hotel rooms available and Trois-Rivieres is only 24 kilometers away.&ldquo;The CMJHL would really have to have some strong technical objections (to change the site).&rdquo;The tournament rotates between the three leagues and the QMJHL is following the same format for the 67th tournament used by the OHL in Kitchener last year when the Ottawa 67s won the Cup.The regular-season champion of the host league is the host for the round-robin tournament. The Cataractes, under coach Ron Lapointe, who was the assistant coach of Canada&rsquo;s gold medal national junior team, leads the QMJHL standings with a 36-12-1 record, 15 points ahead of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. The Cats need 15 points in their remaining 21 games to assure themselves of the pennant.But if the Cataractes collapsed and another team won the regular-season crown, that team would play host to the tournament, Morissette said.The competition could involve four teams: the OHL and WHL playoff championships along with the QMJHL&rsquo;s regular-season and playoff champions. But if the same Quebec team wins both the regular-season and playoff titles, only three teams will compete.&ldquo;The QMJHL is asking for a financial guarantee and the Cataractes will provide one of $175,000, the anticipated budget for the tournament,&rdquo; Morissette said. &ldquo;Shawinigan is ready to make a lot of alterations, ready to do just about anything for the tournament. A hall at a golf course can hold between 800 and 1,100 for the Memorial Cup banquet.&ldquo;The team&rsquo;s governor, Raymond Prono vost, said Shawinigan could easily match the facilities in Kitchener and Ron Lapointe believes his team can win the Cup this year.&rdquo; &#9632;

Cataractes’ Bid For Cup Given League Support

<h2>Mon. Jan. 28 CALGARY 3, EDMONTON 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-01452/4963685-1-eng-US/f0033-012.jpg" title="f0033-01" width="571" height="823"></div><h2>Tue. Jan. 29 MINNESOTA 4, ISLANDERS 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-02324/4963678-1-eng-US/f0033-022.jpg" title="f0033-02" width="561" height="889"></div><h2>WASHINGTON 3, DETROIT 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-03233/4963671-1-eng-US/f0033-032.jpg" title="f0033-03" width="536" height="888"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, ST. LOUIS 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-04178/4963664-1-eng-US/f0033-042.jpg" title="f0033-04" width="540" height="505"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-05146/4963657-1-eng-US/f0033-052.jpg" title="f0033-05" width="591" height="559"></div><h2>EDMONTON 4, CALGARY 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-06121/4963650-1-eng-US/f0033-062.jpg" title="f0033-06" width="590" height="739"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 3, LOS ANGELES 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-07109/4963643-1-eng-US/f0033-072.jpg" title="f0033-07" width="585" height="797"></div><h2>Wed. Jan. 30 BOSTON 2, BUFFALO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0890/4963636-1-eng-US/f0033-082.jpg" title="f0033-08" width="558" height="708"></div><h2>TORONTO 6, PITTSBURGH 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-0979/4963629-1-eng-US/f0033-092.jpg" title="f0033-09" width="570" height="968"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 6, CHICAGO 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1074/4963622-1-eng-US/f0033-102.jpg" title="f0033-10" width="576" height="414"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1171/4963615-1-eng-US/f0033-112.jpg" title="f0033-11" width="574" height="386"></div><h2>MONTREAL 4, VANCOUVER 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1270/4963608-1-eng-US/f0033-122.jpg" title="f0033-12" width="588" height="78"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0033-1356/4963601-1-eng-US/f0033-132.jpg" title="f0033-13" width="572" height="450"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-01485/4963594-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg" title="f0035-01" width="558" height="390"></div><h2>Thu. Jan. 31 QUEBEC 5, BOSTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-02386/4963587-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="552" height="914"></div><h2>HARTFORD 3, LOS ANGELES 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-03304/4963580-1-eng-US/f0035-032.jpg" title="f0035-03" width="558" height="862"></div><h2>RANGERS 2, CALGARY 7</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-04255/4963573-1-eng-US/f0035-042.jpg" title="f0035-04" width="558" height="714"></div><h2>NEW JERSEY 1, PHILAD. 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-05208/4963566-1-eng-US/f0035-052.jpg" title="f0035-05" width="554" height="536"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-02349/4963559-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="569" height="148"></div><h2>DETROIT 2, ST. LOUIS 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-03275/4963552-1-eng-US/f0036-032.jpg" title="f0036-03" width="568" height="664"></div><h2>Fri. Feb. 1 ISLANDERS 2, NEW JERSEY 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-04200/4963545-1-eng-US/f0036-042.jpg" title="f0036-04" width="569" height="610"></div><h2>TORONTO 3, WASHINGTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-05159/4963538-1-eng-US/f0036-052.jpg" title="f0036-05" width="587" height="738"></div><h2>HARTFORD 3, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-06137/4963531-1-eng-US/f0036-062.jpg" title="f0036-06" width="589" height="241"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-07129/4963524-1-eng-US/f0036-072.jpg" title="f0036-07" width="583" height="611"></div><h2>Sat. Feb. 2 WINNIPEG 4, BOSTON 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-08124/4963517-1-eng-US/f0036-082.jpg" title="f0036-08" width="588" height="379"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-09118/4963510-1-eng-US/f0036-092.jpg" title="f0036-09" width="558" height="437"></div><h2>BUFFALO 6, PHILADELPHIA 3</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-10115/4963503-1-eng-US/f0036-102.jpg" title="f0036-10" width="560" height="792"></div><h2>MONTREAL 5, LOS ANGELES 1</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-11111/4963496-1-eng-US/f0036-112.jpg" title="f0036-11" width="539" height="760"></div><h2>QUEBEC 3, DETROIT 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-12107/4963489-1-eng-US/f0036-122.jpg" title="f0036-12" width="541" height="1159"></div><h2>ISLANDERS 4, PITTSBURGH 0</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-13104/4963482-1-eng-US/f0036-132.jpg" title="f0036-13" width="546" height="730"></div><h2>RANGERS 1, EDMONTON 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1498/4963475-1-eng-US/f0036-142.jpg" title="f0036-14" width="548" height="160"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-01407/4963468-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg" title="f0037-01" width="562" height="328"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-02292/4963461-1-eng-US/f0037-022.jpg" title="f0037-02" width="586" height="368"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 5, TORONTO 2</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-03221/4963454-1-eng-US/f0037-032.jpg" title="f0037-03" width="604" height="336"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-04183/4963447-1-eng-US/f0037-042.jpg" title="f0037-04" width="598" height="368"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-05158/4963440-1-eng-US/f0037-052.jpg" title="f0037-05" width="566" height="180"></div><h2>CHICAGO 1, ST. LOUIS 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-06135/4963433-1-eng-US/f0037-062.jpg" title="f0037-06" width="566" height="112"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-01443/4963426-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg" title="f0039-01" width="563" height="616"></div><h2>Sun. Feb. 3 HARTFORD 3, EDMONTON 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-02309/4963419-1-eng-US/f0039-022.jpg" title="f0039-02" width="549" height="769"></div><h2>CALGARY 1, BUFFALO 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-03221/4963412-1-eng-US/f0039-032.jpg" title="f0039-03" width="540" height="708"></div><h2>MINNESOTA 1, QUEBEC 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-04187/4963405-1-eng-US/f0039-042.jpg" title="f0039-04" width="538" height="733"></div><h2>RANGERS 1, VANCOUVER 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-05152/4963398-1-eng-US/f0039-052.jpg" title="f0039-05" width="536" height="498"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-06128/4963391-1-eng-US/f0039-062.jpg" title="f0039-06" width="595" height="248"></div><h2>DETROIT 5, NEW JERSEY 5</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-07112/4963384-1-eng-US/f0039-072.jpg" title="f0039-07" width="571" height="827"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-08101/4963377-1-eng-US/f0039-082.jpg" title="f0039-08" width="595" height="93"></div><h2>WINNIPEG 2, WASH. 6</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-0989/4963370-1-eng-US/f0039-092.jpg" title="f0039-09" width="578" height="856"></div><h2>ST. LOUIS 6, CHICAGO 4</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1080/4963363-1-eng-US/f0039-102.jpg" title="f0039-10" width="575" height="75"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1170/4963356-1-eng-US/f0039-112.jpg" title="f0039-11" width="586" height="438"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-1262/4963349-1-eng-US/f0039-122.jpg" title="f0039-12" width="560" height="442"></div> &#9632;

f0033-01

NATIONAL LEAGUE SUMMARIES

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0034-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-01511/4963716-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0034-01

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SCORING

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-06" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-06189/4963747-1-eng-US/f0035-062.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0035-06

NHL TEAM ROSTERS

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1597/4963837-1-eng-US/f0036-152.jpg" title="f0036-15" width="560" height="358"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-01462/4963844-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="194" height="184"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1694/4963830-1-eng-US/f0036-162.jpg" title="f0036-16" width="558" height="359"></div> &#9632;

f0036-15

National League Rookie Leaders

(Standings on Tue. Feb. 5)<h2>CAMPBELL CONFERENCE</h2><h3>NORRIS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1788/4963896-1-eng-US/f0036-172.jpg" title="f0036-17" width="530" height="180"></div><h3>SMYTHE DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1884/4963889-1-eng-US/f0036-182.jpg" title="f0036-18" width="530" height="180"></div><h2>WALES CONFERENCE</h2><h3>ADAMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-1982/4963882-1-eng-US/f0036-192.jpg" title="f0036-19" width="533" height="175"></div><h3>PATRICK DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-2078/4963875-1-eng-US/f0036-202.jpg" title="f0036-20" width="529" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Jan. 28Calgary 3 at Edmonton 4Tue. Jan. 29Minnesota 4 at NY Islanders 4 (OT)New Jersey 3 at Los Angeles 6Washington 3 at Detroit 4Winnipeg 6 at St. Louis 6 (OT)Edmonton 4 at Calgary 2Wed. Jan. 30Boston 2 at Buffalo 6Montreal 4 at Vancouver 5 (OT)Toronto 6 at Pittsburgh 5Winnipeg 6 at Chicago 3Thu. Jan. 31Quebec 5 at Boston 6Hartford 3 at Los Angeles 5NY Rangers 2 at Calgary 7New Jersey 1 at Philadelphia 3Detroit 2 at St. Louis 3Fri. Feb. 1Hartford 3 at Vancouver 4 (OT)NY Islanders 2 at New Jersey 3Toronto 3 at Washington 3 (OT)Sat. Feb. 2Winnipeg 4 at Boston 3Buffalo 6 at Philadelphia 3Montreal 5 at Los Angeles 1Quebec 3 at Detroit 6NY Islanders 4 at Pittsburgh 0NY Rangers 1 at Edmonton 5Minnesota 5 at Toronto 2Chicago 1 at St. Louis 5Sun. Feb. 3Hartford 3 at Edmonton 6Calgary 1 at Buffalo 6Minnesota 1 at Quebec 5NY Rangers 1 at Vancouver 4Detroit 5 at New Jersey 5 (OT)Winnipeg 2 at Washington 6St. Louis 6 at Chicago 4 &#9632;

f0036-17

THE NHL SCOREBOARD

<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-07115/4963927-1-eng-US/f0037-072.jpg" title="f0037-07" width="546" height="1215"></div>The Pittsburgh Penguins, who were starting to become something of a bad joke in the National Hockey League, appear to have reversed their field and are on the road to respectability.Mario Lemieux, the No. 1 pick overall in the 1984 entry draft, deserves much of the credit, but it would be remiss not to mention another first-round pick, defenseman Doug Bodger.Bodger, a 19-year-old graduate of the Kamloops Junior Cilers who led his team to the Memorial Cup tournament last spring, is a blue-chip prospect around whom the Penguins can construct their blueline corps.After 44 games, Bodger has fou goals and 17 assists. In junior, offense was his strength, but the 6-foot-2, 200-pound defender has shown signs of becoming a complete defenseman in the NHL. &#9632;

f0037-07

Chrysler Rookie Spotlight

<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Wed. Feb. 6)<h3>SOUTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-01473/4964063-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="518" height="232"></div><h3>NORTHERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-02375/4964056-1-eng-US/f0038-022.jpg" title="f0038-02" width="521" height="204"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 29Hershey 8 at Adirondack 7Springfield 6 at Baltimore 4Wed. Jan. 30Springfield 2 at Hershey 7Nova Scotia 2 at Moncton 4Thu. Jan. 31Hershey 2 at Baltimore 1Binghamton 7 at Fredericton 1Moncton 2 at Nova Scotia 5Springfield 8 at St. Catharines 4Fri. Feb. 1Fredericton 4 at New Haven 5Adirondack 3 at Rochester 6Maine 4 at Sherbrooke 7Sat. Feb. 2New Haven 6 at Adirondack 7St. Cahtarines 3 at Baltimore 4Rochester 3 at Hershey 3Fredericton 3 at Maine 4Binghamton 2 at Moncton 4Sherbrooke 5 at Springfield 2Sun. Feb. 3Springfield 2 at Maine 5Fredericton 1 at New Haven 2Binghamton 4 at Nova Scotia 0Hershey 5 at Rochester 8Sherbrooke 4 at St. Catharines 6<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-03298/4964049-1-eng-US/f0038-032.jpg" title="f0038-03" width="524" height="321"></div><h2>INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 4)<h3>EAST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-04229/4964042-1-eng-US/f0038-042.jpg" title="f0038-04" width="520" height="145"></div><h3>WEST DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-05162/4964035-1-eng-US/f0038-052.jpg" title="f0038-05" width="521" height="178"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Wed. Jan. 30Fort Wayne 2 at Flint 4Kalamazoo 2 at Toledo 5Milwaukee 2 at Salt Lake 5Fri. Feb. 1Fort Wayne 5 at Kalamazoo 5Flint 2 at Toledo 4Muskegon 3 at Indianapolis 4Milwaukee 2 at Salt Lake 8Sat. Feb. 2Fort Wayne 4 at Muskegon 1Flint 4 at Indianapolis 1Sun. Feb. 3Flint 5 at Kalamazoo 8Fort Wayne 4 at Toledo 2Milwaukee 1 at Peoria 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-06124/4964028-1-eng-US/f0038-062.jpg" title="f0038-06" width="521" height="291"></div><h2>ONTARIO SENIOR LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Sun. Feb. 3)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-07110/4964021-1-eng-US/f0038-072.jpg" title="f0038-07" width="523" height="260"></div><h2>ATLANTIC COAST LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Thu. Feb. 7)<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0893/4964014-1-eng-US/f0038-082.jpg" title="f0038-08" width="524" height="206"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 29Pine Bridge 3 at Carolina 7Wed. Jan. 30Pine Bridge 3 at Erie 5Virginia 4 at Mohawk Valley 7Fri. Feb. 1Carolina 3 at Erie 4Mohawk Valley 3 at Pine Bridge 4Sat. Feb. 2Carolina 6 at Erie 3Mohawk Valley 6 at Pine Bridge 7Sun. Feb. 3Erie 4 at Carolina 0Pine Bridge 2 at Virginia 4<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-0983/4964007-1-eng-US/f0038-092.jpg" title="f0038-09" width="529" height="358"></div><h2>ONTARIO LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 5)<h3>LEYDEN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1079/4964000-1-eng-US/f0038-102.jpg" title="f0038-10" width="529" height="239"></div><h3>EMMS DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1173/4963993-1-eng-US/f0038-112.jpg" title="f0038-11" width="536" height="267"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 29London 4 at Sudbury 3Cornwall 6 at Kingston 4Thu. Jan. 31Kingston 1 at Peterborough 12S.S. Marie 3 at Windsor 4Ottawa 2 at Hamilton 9Sudbury 0 at North Bay 7Kitchener 6 at Guelph 4Fri. Feb. 1Hamilton 5 at Kitchener 6S.S. Marie 7 at London 4North Bay 5 at Sudbury 6Peterborough 8 at Kingston 3Ottawa 3 at Guelph 8Toronto 2 at Oshawa 5Sat. Feb. 2Oshawa 3 at Belleville 8London 2 at Toronto 5Cornwall 8 at Peterborough 7Windsor 6 at Hamilton 3Sun. Feb. 3Belleville 5 at Toronto 3Ottawa 5 at Oshawa 8Guelph 5 at North Bay 4Kingston 5 at Cornwall 11S.S. Marie 4 at Sudbury 3London 2 at Kitchener 5<h3>LEADING SCORERS</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1268/4963986-1-eng-US/f0038-122.jpg" title="f0038-12" width="534" height="324"></div><h2>WESTERN LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Tue. Feb. 5)<h3>EASTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1359/4963979-1-eng-US/f0038-132.jpg" title="f0038-13" width="530" height="260"></div><h3>WESTERN DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1453/4963972-1-eng-US/f0038-142.jpg" title="f0038-14" width="528" height="204"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Tue. Jan. 29Saskatoon 0 at Medicine Hat 4Prince Albert 5 at New Westminster 3Moose Jaw 6 at Victoria 8Seattle 7 at Kamloops 1Wed. Jan. 30Regina 8 at Brandon 6Kelowna 5 at Calgary 6Prince Albert 10 at Portland 5Thu. Jan. 31Kelowna 2 at Medicine Hat 6New Westminster 1 at Victoria 4Fri. Feb. 1Brandon 2 at Regna 8Kelowna 5 at Lethbridge 6Prince Albert 3 at Kamloops 4Portland 4 at Seattle 7Sat. Feb. 2Lethbridge 2 at Medicine Hat 5Portland 6 at Victoria 5New Westminster 6 at Kamloops 1Calgary 3 at Saskatoon 2Sun. Feb. 3Medicine Hat 4 at Letbhridge 3Calgary 7 at Regina 5Victoria 3 at Seattle 6New Westminster 2 at Kelowna 6<h2>QUEBEC LEAGUE</h2>(Standings on Mon. Feb. 4)<h3>LEBEL DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1551/4963965-1-eng-US/f0038-152.jpg" title="f0038-15" width="538" height="182"></div><h3>DILIO DIVISION</h3><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-1647/4963958-1-eng-US/f0038-162.jpg" title="f0038-16" width="528" height="234"></div><h3>GAMES COMPLETED</h3>Mon. Jan. 28T-Rivieres 5 at Laval 4Tue. Jan. 29Drummondville 6 at Longueuil 4Wed. Jan. 30Granby 9 at Hull 15Chicoutimi 5 at T-Rivieres 9Laval 5 at Verdun 3Thu. Jan. 31Shawinigan 5 at Longueuil 2Fri. Feb. 1Chicoutimi 5 at Granby 2Longueuil 3 at Quebec 5Drummondville 4 at Shawinigan 6Hull 4 at St. Jean 1T-Rivieres 2 at Verdun 4Sun. Feb. 3Longueuil 3 at Granby 7Chicoutimi 5 at Hull 9St. Jean 5 at Quebec 4Drummondville 6 at T-Rivieres 7Shawinigan 4 at Verdun 5 &#9632;

f0038-01

MINOR SCOREBOARD

<h2>NATIONAL LEAGUE</h2>BOSTON&mdash;Jim Nill, RW, traded to Winnipeg for Morris Lukowich, LW. Nevin Markwart, LW, sent to Hershey of AHL. Steve Kasper, C, back from injury list.BUFFALO&mdash;Normand Lacombe, RW, returned to Rochester of AHL.CHICAGO&mdash;Randy Boyd, D, erroneously reported assigned to Milwaukee of IHL. Boyd is currently on Chicago&rsquo;s roster but recovering from an injury. Curt Fraser, LW, back from injury list. Wayne Presley, LW, returned to S.S. Marie of OHL. Jeff Larmer, LW, sent back to Milwaukee of IHL. Keith Brown, D, placed on injury list.DETROIT&mdash;Dwight Foster, C, and Larry Trader, D, back from injury list. Trader assigned to Adirondack of AHL for conditioning. Dave Silk, LW, also assigned to Adirondack but did not report.EDMONTON&mdash;Jeff Beukeboom, D, recalled from S.S. Marie of OHL as emergency replacement for injured Lee Fogolin, D. Pat Hughes, RW, out for 10 days with sprained knee.HARTFORD&mdash;Ed Staniowski, G, and Ray Ferraro, C, returned to Binghamton of AHL. Mike Zuke, C, back from injury list.MINNESOTA&mdash;Dave Richter, D, recalled from Springfield of AHL. Dirk Graham, RW, returned to Springfield. Craig Hartsburg, D, reinjured hip and is out indefinitely. Terry Martin, LW, obtained in trade from Edmonton, out indefinitely with shoulder separation. Don Beaupre, G, back from injury list.MONTREAL&mdash;Ric Nattress, D, assigned to Sherbrooke of AHL. Chris Chelios, D, returned from injury list.NEW JERSEY&mdash;Uli Hiemer, D, and John MacLean, RW, sidelined with knee injuries. Doug Sulliman, LW, out with groin pull. Rick Meagher, C, back from injury list.NY ISLANDERS&mdash;Billy Smith, G, sidelined for six games after being suspened by the NHL. Todd Lombard, G, recalled from Flint of IHL as a replacement. Stefan Persson, D, Anders Kallur, LW, Pat LaFontaine, C, and Bob Nystrom, RW, back from injury list. Gord Lane, D, sidelined with knee injury. Vern Smith, D, Allan Kerr, LW, Mark Hamway, RW, and Ron Handy, LW, all returned to Springfield after emergency recall.NY RANGERS&mdash;Chris Kontos, LW, and Mike Blaisdell, RW, returned to New Haven of AHL. Anders Hedberg, RW, and Steve Patrick, RW, back from injury list.PHILADELPHIA&mdash;Brad McCrimmon, D, out for two weeks with a broken hand. Rich Sutter, RW, sent to Springfield of AHL. Tim Young, C, recalled from Hershey of AHL. Mark Howe, D, back from injury list.PITTSBURGH&mdash;Bob Errey, LW, recalled from Baltimore of AHL. Bruce Crowder, LW, Andy Brickley, LW, Arto Javanainen, RW, and Pehti Lehto, D, assigned to Baltimore. Mike Bullard, C, Roger Belanger, RW, back from injury list.QUEBEC&mdash;Luc Dufour, LW, traded to St. Louis for Alain Lemieux, C, who was on assignment to Peoria of IHL. Michel Goulet, LW, back from injury list.TORONTO&mdash;Bill Stewart, D, Leigh Verstraete, RW, and Basil McRae, LW, all returned to St. Catharines of AHL. Ken Strong, RW, sidelined with bruised shoulder.VANCOUVER&mdash;Neil Belland, D, and JeanMarc Lanthier, RW, sent back to Fredericton of AHL-WASHINGTON&mdash;Peter Andersson, D, recalled from Binghamton of AHL. Darren Veitch, D, sidelined with rib injury.<h2>AMERICAN LEAGUE</h2>ADIRONDACK&mdash;Pat Graham, LW, signed as free agent.BINGHAMTON&mdash;Peter Sidorkiewicz, G, returned to Fort Wayne of IHL.HERSHEY&mdash;Mike Bloski, G, returned to Mohawk Valley of ACHL.NEW HAVEN&mdash;Tom Price, D, signed as free agent.ROCHESTER&mdash;Bob McNamara, G, assigned to Mohawk Valley of ACHL &#9632;

Search for your favorite player or team

February 15, 1985

Flames Confirm Peplinski Has Leadership Abilities

FAN FORUM

Czech Federation May Give Players Break

NHL GAMES TO COME